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Category: Beliefs

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Teaching the Japanese Tea Ceremony: Mine Somi Kubose

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage. In China, in the eighth century, it entered the realm of poetry as one of the polite amusements. The fifteenth century saw Japan ennoble it into a religion of aestheticism—Teaism. Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Who’s Afraid of Friday the Thirteenth?

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

Friday the 13th may be considered an unlucky day in some parts of Europe and in North America.   For some, the day can cause great anxiety, called paraskevidekatriaphobia, meaning fear of Friday the 13th. The idea that Friday the 13th is unlucky is not very old. It seems to have arisen in the 19th century. …