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Halloween in Australia? It’s been here much longer than you might think…
Earlier this month, farmer Rusty Dredge was preparing to harvest around 150,000 jack-o’-lantern pumpkins on his farm near Broome, WA. Most of these pumpkins will have now made their way to homes in Western and South Australia where they’ve been stabbed, hacked at, and lovingly transformed into ghoulish lanterns for Halloween. A steadily growing celebration in Australia, many…
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Superstition, Shoes & Secrets – Australia’s History of Concealed Objects and Evil-Averting Symbols.
WATCH VIDEO: Below is a transcript of the content that appears in the video (with a few extra pictures and a comment here and there): 1863 Sydney, Australia George and Mary Hurley move into a house in Lower Fort Street, Dawes Point. During this period, families often lost their children to disease and illnesses that pose no threat today. Life expectancy was significantly…
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“It’s Just a Joke”: The Dark Side & Lore of Prejudice.
Knock-Knock… Joke cycles. We’ve all come across or taken part in them throughout our lives. There are chicken jokes, knock-knock jokes and lightbulb jokes. Remember those awful dead baby jokes? The jokes that circulated when the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after takeoff in 1986? Not long after email became a ‘thing’, it took just hours (some…
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The Writing on the Wall. Latrinalia: Graffiti from the Restroom.
Latrinalia. The poetry of the bathroom (a.k.a the lavatory, the loo, dunny, closet, privy, urinal, latrine, washroom, little boy’s or little girl’ room, powder room, bogger, john, crapper, pissoir or water closet).
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Folk-lore. A Birthday Survey.
First coined by William J. Thoms on 22 August 1846, the word ‘folk-lore’ has become an enduring lens through which we analyse and acknowledge ‘informal culture’. ‘Folk-lore’ (yes, initially hyphenated but no longer), turned 170 years old this week. It’s also a term that has arguably become a victim of its own folklore. What is it?…
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Superstitious? A Snapshot of Modern & Remembered Superstitions & Beliefs.
There’s something about this picture that may (or may not) make you feel queasy… Meet Effie Conigrave, age 17 and dressed as ‘good luck’ in 1887. We’re given no clues as to why she’s dressed as ‘good luck’. Nor do we know if this outfit actually did bring her any luck. Based on her frock…
A Hidden Culture 