Have you ever wondered how a circled straight line intersected by an upside down V-shape became a peace symbol? Here’s a look at the peace sign origins: Continue reading →
Posted in Culture
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Tagged Culture, symbols
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Why do we celebrate birthdays with birthday cake?
Have you ever wondered why we celebrate birthdays with cake? Why not fruit salad? Or chopped liver? The answer lies in the history of birthday celebrations. Continue reading →
Posted in Culture
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Tagged birthdays, Culture
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The Happy Birthday song is one of the most widely sung songs in the world. But when did the tradition of singing this merry tune begin?
The answer is around the late 1890s to early 1900s, but the story is not quite a simple one… Continue reading →
(Other spellings and names for the holiday: tu b’shvat, tu bishvat, tu be shevat, tu b shvat, Rosh HaShanah La’Ilanot) Continue reading →
Anchor tattoos are one of the oldest tattoo designs in the West and they are still popular today. Why do people get anchor tattoos? What does the anchor symbol mean? Continue reading →
Posted in Culture
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Tagged Culture, symbols
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If you feel yourself being more negative than you’d like to be, you’ve read the article about why people are negative and you’d really like to learn to be more positive, this article has been written especially for you. Here are a few suggestions to help you on your way to overcome negativity once and for all. Continue reading →
Pessimism: It’s an unwanted epidemic of our times. It comes to us in a multitude of guises as people around us complain and spew forth negativity about their lives. They share how bad their life is, how difficult their relationships are, how little willpower they have to keep to their New Year’s resolution to work out more. They complain about their lack of money, their difficulty to find a job or if they do have a job, they complain about how much they hate it. They’re overweight, keep getting sick, feel tired and unhappy. It seems that they have much of what they don’t want and little of what they really do want.
Negativity is even rife in the ever-influential media, feeding our minds with bad news, tragedies, traumas, dramas and disasters. A BBC television program called “Grumpy Old Men” encourages viewers to enjoy watching grumpy middle aged men speak about everything that bothers them in the world.
Why are people so negative, and even more mysteriously, why do some people appear to revel in their negativity? Continue reading →
Some of us get salt cravings once in a blue moon whilst for others it’s a commonly occurring craving. It may express itself as an overwhelming desire for ready-salted chips, salty popcorn or even olives. With others you may find yourself salting everything in sight! Either way, what does craving salty foods say about you? Continue reading →
If you’re not Chinese or Japanese, you may not have heard the term “maneki neko” but you may well have seen one; most probably in a Chinese or Japanese restaurant or shop. Maneki neko is a good luck charm in the form of a cat figurine that has one paw raised in what looks like a kind of wave. It’s often nicknamed “the lucky waving cat”. Why would a waving cat be lucky? Continue reading →
Even if most of us today don’t carry rabbits’ feet around with us, most of us are aware of them as a superstitious symbol of good luck. Why do we consider the rabbit’s foot lucky? Continue reading →
