Worldcrunch
Updated September 12, 2024 at 12:00 a.m. The Lascaux cave paintings were accidentally discovered by four teenagers on this day in 1940. Marcel Ravidat, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel, and Simon Coencas stumbled upon the entrance to the cave while searching for their dog. They later informed local authorities, leading to the exploration and subsequent recognition […]
In traditionally Catholic Ireland a different kind of clergy is emerging, one which is making weddings, funerals and other ceremonies more inclusive and personal.
Updated February 26, 2025 at 05:00 p.m. It’s been 11 years since the iconic Oscars selfie posted March 3, 2014 during the 86th Academy Awards ceremony, featuring several high-profile celebrities. It captured the selfie craze, and the obsession with celebrity culture. Who took the 2014 Oscars selfie? The selfie was taken by Bradley Cooper, with […]
Zambia’s traditional counselors are rethinking the country’s puberty rites, which some argue are detrimental to girls’ well-being.
Buddhist and Shinto temples in Japan hold “ningyo kuyo” (人形供養) funeral rites for unwanted dolls, a spiritual send off to thank dolls for their service and properly put them to rest.
WAGAH — Here at the India-Pakistan border, thousands of men, women and children have gathered to watch a stunning ritual: On either side of the border, military march back and forth, as music roars and crowds cheer. Known either as the Wagah border ceremony, the lowering of the flags, or “Beating Retreat” ceremony, the ritual has been performed every day since 1959, as flags are lowered around sunset. “Summer, winter or in any kind of storm, whatever the weather or political conditions, the parade doesn’t stop,” said Sumer Singh, former Deputy Inspector General of India’s Border Security Force (BSF). The […]
The 2016 Summer Paralympics opened at Rio’s iconic Maracana Stadium on Wednesday evening, 17 days after the end of the Olympics. Brazilian daily O Globo devoted its front page Thursday to the opening ceremony, with the headline “The Paralympics move the Maracana” alongside a picture of Amy Purdy dancing with a robotic arm. The American […]
La Capital, Dec. 11, 2015 “I want to be the president of a united Argentina,” Argentina’s oldest daily La Capital quotes the country’s new leader Mauricio Macri as saying on its front page Friday, a day after he was sworn in as president. Predecessor Cristina Fernández de Kirchner boycotted Macri’s inauguration after a bitter dispute […]
PARIS — With 20 to 25 burials a day on average, the iconic Père Lachaise Cemetery is used to a steady pace of funerals — but these ceremonies are different. On Monday, the largest cemetery in Paris was partially closed for two hours to allow 19 employees to meet with a psychologist about the trauma […]
KABUL — Big weddings, music and dancing were banned in Afghanistan under the Taliban. So after the U.S.-led invasion toppled the regime in 2001, Afghans who could afford it began throwing large, loud and expensive weddings. But the government says the tradition has become a burden for grooms’ families, who are obliged to underwrite wedding costs, and the parliament has passed a law to makes lavish and expensive weddings illegal. The new law limits the number of wedding guests to 500 and caps the per-head cost at around $7. “This law will solve huge problems facing young people that make […]
In India’s sumptuous Mehrangarh Fort, in the western Rajasthan region, we watched two guards’ traditional turban-tying demonstration. Different styles and colors of head-gear used to be associated with specific Indian villages and communities — a custom that we could see was already beginning to fade two decades ago in many of the places we visited.
SHENYANG — Zhang, who runs a wedding planning service, was doing her best to convince me over the phone to come in to visit what she describes as a “giant reception showroom.” It has been a week since my future mother-in-law put down the deposit for our wedding venue, a newly opened five-star hotel in […]
HAMA — Most young women in Syria probably grew up dreaming of someday having a beautiful, magical wedding. But in wartime, many women, assuming they are able to wed at all, are settling for ceremonies that are a far cry from what they imagined. “My biggest fear was that we would book a restaurant and no one would show up,” says Sarah, a newlywed from Hama. She had planned to get married at the end of the summer. But plans are hard to make in Syria these days. Roads are so dangerous that chances are slim a mailed invitation will […]
OSLO – “This year’s nominations come from all over the world … well-known names, well-known presidents and prime ministers and also lesser well-known names…” Norwegian Nobel Committee’s non-voting secretary Geir Lundestad acknowledged the controversy sparked by recent numbers, as he announced the number (not names) of nominations for the Peace Prize, which will be awarded […]
CBS (USA) Worldcrunch MINNEAPOLIS – Dozens of gay couples began tying the knot early Thursday morning at Minneapolis City Hall, as Minnesota became the latest state, together with Rhode Island, to legalize same-sex marriage. “I didn’t expect to cry quite that hard,” said a beaming Cathy ten Broeke, who with Margaret Miles was the first […]
A wedding ceremony should make for the happiest of memories. But the now infamous closing scene of the latest Game of Thrones episode (referred as the “red wedding”) reminds us in a whole new way how quickly nuptials can turn gnarly. We have tracked down some of the funniest, quirkiest and just plain disastrous wedding […]
REUTERS, TELEGRAPH (UK), CNN, SENATE.GOV (USA) Worldcrunch WASHINGTON, D.C. – Barack Obama will be sworn in Monday as the President of The United States for a second time. A swearing-in ceremony, parade and an inaugural ball will mark the event. A private ceremony took place on Sunday because the U.S. Constitution mandates that the president […]
Worldcrunch ZURICH – The results for Golden Ball 2012 killed any remaining doubt over who is our era’s undisputed emperor of the soccer planet. FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi won his fourth straight trophy for best player of the year, the first to notch that record for a man whose talent seems to know no limits. […]