As a guest at a medieval manse, I recall my bravado when late at night I was invited to enter the unsealed wooden door of a forbidding garret. My hosts stood well back as cautiously I opened the door to peer into a blackness. Other than the darkness I couldn’t see anything but was aware of what I describe tersely as a hideous malevolent entity inviting me to enter. Slamming the garret door shut I fearfully retreated.
January 6th is a very important holiday in Spain as the entire country celebrates the Epiphany, or Dia de Los Reyes Magos. On the eve of Epiphany (January 5th), every city, town, and village prepares for the arrival of the Three Kings of the Orient by organizing various processions and fiestas, including the famous La Cabalgata de los Reyes Magos, an exciting parade and a cultural experience in its own right.
The Alliance for the Unification of the Romanians (AUR): An Inside View: As the after effects of the Romanian Parliamentary Elections, which took place on December 6, 2020, begin to subside, the newest revelation of the Romanian political scene is just preparing to take centre stage.
Unpopular lockdowns, a despairing public amidst soaring bankruptcies and evictions offers a backdrop to a police service increasingly seen as the state’s heavies employed to ruthlessly suppress the slightest dissent and opposition to unpopular laws.
Christmas, one of the most important celebrations for Christians throughout Europe has a very deep religious meaning that is written into Polish national tradition and culture.
The 94-year-old Italian from the town of Alto Reno Terme felt so lonely on Christmas that he called the carabinieri.
Probošt’s mechanical Christmas crib, also known as Bethlehem of Třebechovice or Probošt’s Nativity Scene of Třebechovice, is a wooden mechanical nativity scene that was made by Josef Probošt (1849–1926), Josef Kapucián (1841–1908) and Josef Friml (1861–1946).
This government has only one way, to go away on its own. Raimonds Pauls is a Latvian composer and piano player who is well known in Russia and the Baltic States, indeed, much further afield. He was the Minister of culture of Latvia from 1988 to 1993.
Wren Day is celebrated on 26 December, St. Stephen’s Day in a number of countries across Europe. The tradition consists of “hunting” a fake wren and putting it on top of a decorated pole. Then the crowds of mummers, or strawboys, celebrate the wren (also pronounced wran) by dressing up in masks, straw suits, and colourful motley clothing. They form music bands and parade through towns and villages. These crowds are sometimes called the wrenboys.
Is history repeating itself and will we, for once, learn from history? In 1792, flames of the revolution lit in Paris had engulfed France. Revolutionary fervour and the fury of the people against the ruling caste reached a crescendo. Foreign forces (gimmigrants) were looming over the borders, threatening to quash those defiant voices. It was at such a time, on a night of gathering storm, that an ordinary soldier penned a song that became the greatest inspiring force of the people’s revolt against a tyrannical government. This is the story of that stirring song, La Marseillaise.
Michael Walsh Stories and Books 
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