Jan 1st, 2009 · Charles Gaulperin is a Santeria priest and the owner of Botanica El Congo Manuel. The shop sells religious items out of a strip mall in Hollywood. Inside the Botanica, Gaulperin performs sacred Afro-Cuban ceremonies.
Dec 23rd, 2008 · While others are lighting Hanukkah candles and decorating Christmas trees, atheists and humanists are holding their own December celebrations. The secular holiday is known as HumanLight. And while there are no set traditions, many of these gatherings use familiar rituals such as singing and candle lighting to highlight reason and human achievement.
Nov 11th, 2008 · Observant Mormons symbolically baptize dead people to give them the chance to accept Christ in the afterlife. Holocaust survivors complain that they are sometimes using names of people who died in Nazi concentration camps.
Jul 23rd, 2008 · An Indiana woman who wanted to give thanks for a recent run of good luck stabbed herself in the foot while performing a ritual, police said. Katherine Gunter, a Wiccan, went to a cemetery during the full moon and marked her good luck by burning incense and driving a 3-foot sword into the ground. She ended up in the hospital.
Jun 20th, 2008 · The exact origins of "Baconhenge" food sculpting are as murky as the history of British stone monument from which they received their name. Carin Huber, editor of AntiCraft magazine, probes the not-so-ancient culinary craft.
May 27th, 2008 · In the wake of spring, Craig and LaVon Griffieon plant corn on more than 100 acres of their farm in Ankeny, Iowa. With fewer and fewer American families living on farms, the annual gamble of spring planting has become a remote — almost exotic — experience.
Apr 4th, 2008 · Jealous fighting, casual sex, sneaky cheating -- the love life of octopuses just got a lot more interesting. Madeleine Brand talks to Chrissy Huffard, lead author of a study that details the elaborate mating rituals of the octopus.
Mar 22nd, 2008 · The sailors in Annapolis, Md., herald the season by taking off their socks. Believing that real boaters go sockless until fall, these guys add to their spring ritual with a ceremonial sock-burning.