Culture
Unique traditions, customs, and social practices from different cultures and time periods.
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Victorian ladies would drop handkerchiefs as a complex form of flirting.
There was an elaborate code around dropping handkerchiefs, with different methods indicating different messages to potential suitors. This...
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In Victorian England, some people kept small birds in their hair as fashion accessories.
Fashionable ladies would wear small ornamental cages in their hairstyles containing live hummingbirds or other small birds. The...
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Medieval European courts employed professional food tasters who would dress exactly like the king.
These tasters not only tested food for poison but were required to dress identically to the king to...
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In medieval Europe, people would hire professional hermits to live in their gardens.
Wealthy estate owners would employ ornamental hermits to live in purpose-built structures on their property. These hermits were...
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The Tudors believed that rubbing a dead person’s teeth on their gums would prevent toothache.
This macabre dental practice involved rubbing teeth taken from corpses on painful gums. The practice was widespread enough...
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Persian kings would debate important matters twice – once sober and once drunk.
Important decisions were discussed first while sober, then again while intoxicated. If an idea seemed good in both...
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Victorian ladies would paint their faces with arsenic to appear pale.
Arsenic wafers were eaten or made into face cream to achieve a fashionable pale complexion. This deadly practice...
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In ancient Egypt, servants would be covered in honey to act as human fly catchers.
To keep flies away from important people, servants would be coated in honey. The sticky substance would attract...
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In ancient China, cricket fighting was so popular that specialized cricket referees existed.
Professional cricket-fighting referees would oversee matches between prized fighting crickets. These insects were kept in special ceramic jars...