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Rituals and Traditions

The Foods Americans Once Loved to Eat

Turtles, beavers and eel were once beloved staples of the continental diet. What happened?

A skull at Bolivia's Fiesta de las Ñatitas.

New Photo Book Explores Places the Dead Don’t Rest

From mossy burial caves to bone-filled churches, photographer Paul Koudounaris spent a dozen years documenting sites where the living and dead interact

The makech, a beautiful beetle from Central and South America has been worn as a living pendant for centuries.

Meet the Makech, the Bedazzled Beetles Worn as Living Jewelry

The unusual bugs from the Yucatán have a backstory as colorful as their rhinestone-studded rumps

The yurt, a portable, circular hut, has been a part of Central Asian nomadic culture for centuries. During the Soviet era, metal was abundant and cheap, so metallic yurts frequent Kyrgyzstan ancestral cemeteries. An Islamic crescent tops this yurt, and a Kyrgyz hunting eagle spreads its wings in the background.

Kyrgyzstan’s Otherworldly Cities of the Dead

Photographer Margaret Morton traveled to the remote corners of the Central Asian nation to document its city-like ancestral cemeteries

Members of the Xhosa tribe, like the young initiates seen here in Khayelitsha, are among the South African groups that practice ritual circumcision. The affiliation of the young man who received a transplant is not known.

Trending Today

The Trickiest Part of a Penis Transplant? Finding a Donor

The doctors who announced the first successful procedure last week had a particularly difficult time finding willing organ donors

The ubiquitous shamrock has mythical origins.

No One Really Knows What a Shamrock Is

The three-leaf clover is what everyone wears, but what species is it?

Fictitious Catalan figures known as "carnestoltes" dance in the street during the Carnival parade in Sitges, Spain.

Mad, Wonderful Photos From Mardi Gras and Carnival

From New Orleans to Panama to Spain, revelers celebrated Mardi Gras and the days leading up to it with costumes, color and craziness

In some parts of the country, this is what duck sauce looks like. In others, not so much.

Ask Smithsonian

What Exactly Is Duck Sauce?

Trying to get to the bottom of this Chinese food mystery sends our writer on a wild goose chase

A devil burns gunpowder during the festival of Els Foguerons de Sa Pobla.

Catalonia

One Night Each Winter, Devils Run Through the Streets of Barcelona

Since the early 1990s, Barcelona’s winter bonfire festival has celebrated the intersection of Catalan and Majorcan cultures

Cool Finds

Argentina Has a Superstition That Seventh Sons Will Turn into Werewolves

If the president adopts them, however, the seventh sons are spared from their werewolf fate

Catalonia

In Catalonia a Christmas Log Delivers Presents in An Unusual Way

Called Tió de Nadal, the log is decorated with a smiling face and fed until Christmas, but that’s not the strangest part of the tradition

Cool Finds

Get Set Up With a Family in NYC for Christmas

Don’t be sad at the prospect of spending the holiday alone, a popular photoblog will match you up with a family

Show Us the Holiday Decorations in Your Neighborhood

What does the holiday season look like in your community? Upload a photo of the best light displays, Christmas trees, menorahs and other festive scenes

Raymond C. Yazzie, 2012. Coral, Lone Mountain and Orvil Jack turquoise, opal, sugilite, 14-karat gold. Collection of Janice Moody.

Why is Turquoise Becoming Rarer and More Valuable Than Diamonds?

With depleting mines, turquoise, the most sacred stone to the Navajo, has become increasingly rare.

Cool Finds

When Becoming a Man Means Sticking Your Hand Into a Glove of Ants

Young men must subject themselves to a ritual involving bullet ant-filled gloves not once but 20 times

Fireworks over Beijing during 2013's Lantern Festival

To Limit Pollution, The Chinese Are Faced With Giving Up an Ancient Tradition

For the Chinese, who invented both gun powder and fireworks, foregoing old traditions may clean up the air—just a bit

Master navigator Mau Piailug teaches navigation to his son and grandson with the help of a star compass.

How the Voyage of the Kon-Tiki Misled the World About Navigating the Pacific

Smithsonian geographer Doug Herman explains the traditional science of traversing the ocean seas

Revelers are splattered with tomatoes during the yearly La Tomatina festival in Bunol, Spain.

Photos from La Tomatina, the World’s Biggest Food Fight

On the last Wednesday of August each year, a small Spanish town erupts into a food fight featuring tomato-throwing

Balan, the Blowpipe maker.

Cool Finds

Meet One of the Last Bornean Elders Who Still Makes Traditional Poison Dart Blowpipes

It takes two days of constant drilling by hand to create a single pipe, which can be used to hunting animals

Soccer chants are an important part of the World Cup. German fans sang while watching their national team play against USA back in June.

World Cup 2014

What Makes Soccer’s Chants So Catchy?

Songs like “Olé, Olé, Olé” and “Seven Nation Army” are dominating soccer. Music experts weigh in on why that is

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