guess what new niche hobby i picked up over the summer!
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Another mundane day in Thessaloniki...
photo by @Spyros_Gi
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The most English headline ever.
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gift tift
They make sure to have green popping out of the snowed in trees. Also note the Santa Claus has rosy cheeks.
Kind of hard to run in the snow, which I guess in reprise has not been shovelled yet.
The tree in the background now is covered in snow.
Different Santa or has his his rosy cheeks warmed up?
Snow clearing is uneven.
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she cambridge on my surprise until i maximus
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Is evil ringing a thing or did i mishear my grandad
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31st December
New Year’s Eve
Allendale Tar Barrel Burning. Source: Pinterest uploaded by Catherine Donaldson.
Today is New Year’s Eve. The turning of the year was traditionally marked by fire customs, some of which survive. In Allendale in Northumberland a parade of gaudily-attired Guisers still takes place on the night of 31st December. Shortly before midnight the all-male procession sets out with each Guiser balancing a barrel of burning tar on his head, the conclusion of which results in the barrels being thrown onto a huge bonfire. This is followed by singing and dancing until the midnight bells chime. In Stonehaven in Grampian, the revellers launch fireballs into the air, or whirl the cloth balls, lit by paraffin, around their heads, the balls being attached to them by strings. The whole event is highly dangerous.
These ceremonies are of course memories of pagan practices designed to light the skies in midwinter to encourage the return of the sun in spring. Bonfires were common, and households should keep their New Year fire burning for at least 24 hours to ensure the coming year is a prosperous one. The horse and bull-worship of the ancient Celts was maintained by men dressed in bull hides and horse costumes who visited homes throughout the Christmas season in order to bestow good fortune in return for alms. The Church objected to such blatant pagan survivals and most died out, but on New Year’s Eve the horse-skull totems of Mari Lwyd visit the farmhouses of Wales still, although the tradition may owe as much to old mumming plays as it does to pagan memories.
Bell ringing is a very prevalent Christian-era New Year’s Eve tradition, and the New Year is rung in to this day at midnight by the chimes Big Ben in London.
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This one covers libraries (the Chained Library at Hereford Cathedral is mentioned), the history of ice and refrigeration, a ghost chicken in Highgate, London, and bell-ringing - without a single mention of The Nine Tailors, but including French bell-ringers getting electrocuted!
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