The month of Þorri

The way we count time has changed throughout history, so did the calendars which helped us counting the days, months, seasons and the phases of the moon. So, according to the ancient scandinavian calendar we are now entering the month of Þorri, which Icelanders to this day still feast on traditional dishes. This is the high month of winter and this celebration marks the time when the provisions from the last harvest (before the coming of winter) were already scarce or ultimately consumed. During this feast the remaining preserved consumables are gathered and a great feast is held.

Þorrablót is the name given to this celebration, or to the festivities held around Scandinavia (and nowadays Iceland) during the month of Þorri. Every village and town has a Þorrablót administration group preparing the festivities; poetry, music and comical acting are part of the festivities in every community.

The 22nd of January is named Bóndadagur - or in other words the day of the husband - which marks the precise beginning of the month of Þorri or Þorrablót, and the festivities lasts until the 21st of February. The last day of this celebration is in turn called Konudagur - the day of the wife. Konudagur marks the beginning of the fifth winter month - Góa - during which the return of the daylight and longer days become discernible and spring will soon begin.

A skeleton bursts out of the ground

Sometimes archaeologists are in contact with really strange things, until a plausible explanation is found, of course. Very recently, archaeologists were astonished when a thousand-year-old skeleton was found entwined in the roots of a tree ripped from the ground after a great storm.

The Skeleton of a young man was unearthed after a great storm blew over an old tree near Collooney - Sligo - Ireland, thus revealing this peculiar finding. This was the burial place of a young man, between his 17's and 20's, who is believed to have had a violent and brutal death during the Early Medieval Ages. (The death of this young man took place around 1030-1200 AD) The skeleton shows Several injuries which are visible in the ribs and hands, probably inflicted by a knife.

What more secrets can this fellow tell us? It remains to be study.

Another Neolithic site near Stonehenge

The buried remains of a mysterious prehistoric monument, close to the famous Stonehenge, has been found. This new site with 90 standing stones, of enormous size (close to 15 feet - 4 meters and half). However, this monument could originally have comprised up to 200 stones. Dating back to more or less 4,500 years ago, may have been used in neolithic times for rituals or as some kind of arena. 

The newly discovered stones are thought to have been toppled over, with the bank of the later Durrington Walls henge built over them (being the Durrington Walls an immense monument, so-called "superhenge", located less than three kilometres (1.8 miles) from Stonehenge. The earthwork enclosure at Durrington Walls was built about a century after Stonehenge - a ring of standing stones believed to have been erected between 3,000 and 2,000 BC. It is believed that the new stone row recently discovered could date back to the same period, or even earlier.

Triora - The Witches' City

The "city" of Triora, known as the "city" of Witches, is located in Italy and it's a small village in the hills of the Valle Argentina (not in Argentina of course, we are talking about Italy - Europe) near the border with France.

Much of the architecture of the village dates back to the 12th century, but the most famous period of this village was during the 16th century when a certain number of women (not clear how many, but the number was great enough to be remembered to this day) were sentenced to death by being burned alive by the Inquisition.

In this village, supposedly, a curse overshadowed it during the Middle Ages. Two years of bad weather followed it, as well as drought and famine because of shortages in agriculture, which in the year of 1587 the church and all most of the villages denizens were certain that witches were conspiring against the village. A group of women from Triora and nearby villages were accused of sacrificing infants and offering them to the devil. They were tried, tortured and burned alive during a long period between the years of  1587 and 1589. The ruins of La Cabotina where hypothetically they did their blasphemous rituals still exists to this day.

These women actually had a vast knowledge of medicinal herbs and worked with such herbs, turning them into medicines and oils to heal the sick. A tradition that was passed down from mother to daughter to granddaughter; from generation to generation this traditions was passed down. Apparently this fact was enough evidence to accuse these women of witchcraft.

This dark event in the history of Triora, which led so many to a gruesome and horrible death, is still remembered today. Triora's residents seem to have a morbid pride about the dark history of their village. A museum, shops with witchcraft items, signage, sculptures, witch houses and various relics were placed and preserved, and can be seen throughout the entire village. There are a number of events and folk festivals, and witches are the main theme (of course). There are three annual festivals: Witchcraft and summer Divinations Festival during August, and two autumn celebrations: the Mushroom Festival in September and Halloween in late October.

Triora has an ethnological museum, old documents and objects that belonged to people who claimed to be witches and a sort of wax museum - reproducing scenes of the arrest and interrogation of women suspected of witchcraft. In the village there is also an association of witches, whose members are descendants of people accused of witchcraft and burned alive.