Life and culture

A cross-cutting collection: family, music, tradition, humour, daily life.

Nowruz: a spring festival and the solar-calendar New Year Explainer · Why Nowruz is not tied to Islamic observance, where it comes from, and what exactly UNESCO recognised on 30 September 2…
Challah and baursak: two tables side by side, not one recipe Story · The Ashkenazi Sabbath bread and a Kazakh dough dish: what they share, and why this is not one food with two names.
Passover: a spring festival marking the exodus Explainer · When Passover begins, why its length differs inside and outside Israel, and what is kept out of the diet during those d…
Klezmer: what the word means Explainer · A short explainer: whose music this is and how the name itself is built from the Hebrew words for instruments and melod…
The dombra: a plucked instrument and its name Explainer · What the word dombra means, why the instrument counts as plucked, and whose musical tradition it belongs to.