Category: Culture

The article below is one of the first newspaper mentions I have found so far mentioning the secret societies at Yale. While the societies are…

Cats have far more superstitions attached to them than any other animal. They have been executed as witches, seen as the bearers of good or…

Whether or not you believe in the Devil, the stories and beliefs surround him are intriguing. The Devil absorbed everything Christians hated about Paganism (or…

There are many strange beliefs about butterflies. In the distant past, they were killed and even thought to be bad omens, unlike the present day…

Every now and then, gypsies come up in the old newspapers. Oftentimes, it is a negative report or sometimes something trifling. This account of how…

How can you make a pumpkin keep for the winter? I found this little gem in a 1914 newspaper. I have honestly never tried to…

Is there a trick to winning the lottery? Well, according to some people, winning involves a touch of superstition to up the luck. Granted, there…

What people are willing to believe is just incredible. That is what makes cults so interesting, scary, and even entertaining. This newspaper entry is about…

Since they could not make kissing illegal, doctors recommended sucking on a lemon after kissing your sweetheart. It was meant to kill off any yucky…

Love divinations were a very prominent obsession with young women in old Europe because a woman’s fortune or misfortune was tied in with the man…