26 February: Cinderella

Today is Tell a Fairy Tale Day, so here are ten facts about the fairytale Cinderella.

1. The story of Cinderella is a rags to riches tale that originates in folklore. Variations of it appear in folklore from all over the world.

2. The earliest example is from Ancient Greece, which could date back to as early as 7BC. In this version the protagonist is called Rhodopis, which means "Rosy-Cheeks". She is a slave girl who ends up marrying the king of Egypt.

3. The story we are most familiar with comes from a retelling of an Italian version of the story, by the Brothers Grimm in their folk tale collection Grimms' Fairy Tales from 1812, and the 1950 Disney film which was an adaptation of that.

4. In the Brothers Grimm version, the protagonist is called "Aschenputtel" which means "The Little Ash Girl".

5. Cinderella doesn’t wear glass slippers in all versions. Some say it was a fur slipper and the Glass one came about as a mistranslation as the French words for fur and glass sound similar. In some versions, it’s not a Shoe at all, but an anklet, ring or bracelet. Whatever it may be, the point is that Cinderella is the only woman it will fit. In some versions, the ugly sisters actually mutilate their Feet in order to make the slipper fit. In the original Disney movie, the wicked stepmother smashes the glass slipper in a bid to ruin Cinderella’s chances of winning her prince. However, she hadn’t bargained for the fact that Cinderella still had the matching shoe.

6. In some versions, there isn’t even a ball. Instead, Cinderella goes to church. Nor is there always a midnight deadline, but she leaves the ball, or church, simply because she is tired and wants to go home.

7. There’s not always a fairy godmother, either. Sometimes the help comes from a wishing tree, or Cinderella’s mother who has been turned into a Cow, or been reincarnated as one.

8. Disney’s 1950 Cinderella may actually have saved Disney from going bust. The studio was in financial trouble back then, and took a gamble on this film. Luckily for them it paid off.

9. Cinderella’s voice in this film was provided by Ilene Woods, who beat 300 other hopefuls when Walt Disney fell in love with her voice.

10. Cinderella’s name has become an analogy for a person or a sports team that achieves recognition or success after being plucked out of obscurity.

For a short story called The Cinderella Syndrome:

Sweet Karma

More murder and mayhem along with moving statues, Ancient Egyptian magic pebbles, a World War II evacuee's diary and a bathtub full of marshmallows.

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19 April: Knife superstitions

In the French Revolutionary calendar, today was the day of the knife. 10 superstitions about knives.

1. Giving a knife as a gift will sever a friendship unless the recipient gives the giver a coin, which makes the gift a purchase instead. This superstition is said to date back to the Vikings, who believed that giving someone a knife implied they were too poor to buy their own. This would have been an insult.

2. It’s bad luck to stir anything using a knife. The saying goes, stir with a knife and stir up strife.

3. Crossed knives on a table mean there will be a quarrel unless the knives are uncrossed immediately. A knife crossed with a fork, in Catholic countries is said to be an insult to the cross. In the 17^th century, it was believed that a knife crossing another piece of cutlery was a sign of witchcraft. In some parts, crossing a knife with a for or spoon might be interpreted as an insult to the cook.

4. In Greece, a black-handled knife placed under the pillow is used to keep away nightmares. In China, sleeping with a knife under the Bed or under the pillow keeps evil spirits away.

5. Putting a knife under the bed of a woman giving birth is said to ease her pain.

6. Some people believe that sharpening a blade after the sun goes down is bad luck.

7. Knives were included in some Anglo-Saxon burial rites, so the dead person would not be defenceless in the next world.

8. Dropping knives: a common belief is that if you drop a knife, a man will visit you and your luck will change, for better or worse. A variation is that luck will come from the direction the knife is pointing in when it lands. In Iceland, if someone drops a knife while cleaning fish and the knife points in the direction of the sea, the fisherman will get a good haul the next time he goes fishing. If it points inland, however, he won’t catch anything.

9. It is bad luck to say the word "knife" while at sea.

10. A common superstition from Romania is that if you play with knives, your guardian angel will run away.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

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5 January: Wassailing

Wassailing is an old British tradition celebrated around Twelfth Night, usually on 5 or 6 January. 10 things you might not know about it:

1. The word Wassail comes from the Old English ‘was hál’, meaning ‘be hale’ or ‘good health’.

2. These words were used when drinking Toasts, and by the 14^th century, wassail had come to mean the drink used for the toast, especially spiced ale or Cider.

3. There were two distinct forms of wassailing. One would involve going from door to door, singing, offering drinks from a wassail bowl and receiving gifts or treats. This doesn’t happen much nowadays, but it’s thought to be a precursor to the modern tradition of carol singing. This form of wassailing is thought to be the premise behind the song “We wish you a merry Christmas” dating back to when wealthy people would give gifts of food, such as “figgy pudding” to those less fortunate. It wasn’t always benign: sometimes it would be crowds of rowdy youngsters who would demand treats and if they didn’t get them, would vandalise the house of anyone who refused. “We won’t go until we get some” is suggestive of that.

4. The type of wassailing still common today takes place in orchards, particularly those growing Apples or Pears. People gather in the orchards to sing and generally make noise. They might bang pots and pans or even let off shotguns. The purpose of this is twofold: firstly to wake up the trees and second to scare away any evil spirits lurking in the branches.

5. It’s a tradition especially common in cider producing areas like Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire, where the ceremony will include drinking to the health of the trees and a good harvest. Wassailing is also a traditional event in Jersey, Channel Islands where cider (cidre) made up the bulk of the economy before the 20th century.

6. There are traditional songs for the occasion, including ‘The Gloucestershire Wassail Song’ (Wassail! Wassail, all over the town, our toast it is white and our ale it is brown’); ‘The Wassailer’s Carol’ (‘Here we come a-Wassailing among the leaves so green’); and Gower Wassail. English band Blur recorded ‘The Gloucestershire Wassail Song’ as ‘The Wassailing Song’ in 1992.

7. Some of the wassail drink would be sprinkled over the trees. The biggest tree would get wassail poured over its roots. Pieces of toast soaked in cider were placed in the forks of branches.

8. There might be a wassail King and Queen, who lead the procession from orchard to orchard and lead the singing. It would be the Wassail Queen who would place the cider soaked toast in the branches of the trees, lifted up by the crowd.

9. A Somerset folktale tells of the Apple Tree Man, the spirit of the oldest apple tree in an orchard, and in whom the fertility of the orchard is thought to reside. In the tale a man offers his last mug of mulled cider to the trees in his orchard and is rewarded by the Apple Tree Man who tells him the location of some buried Gold.

10. There’s even a wassailing tradition in London where the Bankside Mummers and the Holly Man ‘bring in the green’ and drink to the health of the people and the River Thames.

2 June: Mother Shipton

2nd June is the Commemoration of Mother Shipton. Mother Shipton was a 15th/16th century prophetess who lived in Knaresborough and York. Her real name was Ursula Sontheil.

1. According to legend, she was born during a violent thunderstorm in a cave on the banks of the River Nidd. Her mother Agatha was just fifteen years old at the time, a single mother with no family or friends to support her. She’d refused to name Ursula’s father to the local magistrate and was shunned by the town and banished. She fled to the cave where she lived alone with her daughter for two years. Eventually, the Abbot of Beverley stepped in – he arranged for Ursula to be adopted by a local family and sent Agatha to a nunnery in Nottinghamshire.
2. It’s said that even as a child, she looked like a Witch with a large hooked nose, a bent back and twisted legs which meant she had to use a walking stick. Her looks meant she was teased and bullied by people in the town and so she preferred to be alone, spending a lot of time around the cave where she was born, studying herbs and plants and making potions.
3. In the short time she attended school, before the bullies drove her away, she was said to be highly intelligent. There were claims that she got revenge on the bullies by supernatural means – they’d be tripped up or their hair pulled when nobody was anywhere near them.
4. Although known as Mother Shipton, she wasn’t a mother – that was a title she was given when she became the oldest woman in the village. She did marry, though – a carpenter from York called Thomas Shipton – he died a few years later, and they had no children. She kept his name, though, hence the title Mother Shipton.
5. She made a living from telling fortunes and her fame spread as far as London, and the King, who sent messengers up to Yorkshire to find out what she had to say.
6. What did she have to say? While not all her predictions came true, she is said to have predicted the Black Death, the Great fire of London, the English Reformation, London’s Crystal Palace, the American Civil War and the French Revolution. Some of her predictions ranged even further into the future, perhaps to the present day. “Around the world thoughts shall fly in the twinkling of an eye” could be interpreted as a prediction about the internet.
7. Needless to say, the church didn’t like what she did. Cardinal Wolsey was one of her detractors. When Ursula predicted that he would see York, but never set foot in it, he declared that not only would he get there, but when he did, he would burn her as a witch. Wolsey got as far as Cawood on the outskirts of York before being arrested for treason by Henry Percy. He was sent back to London to stand trial, but fell ill and died before he got there.
8. Various editions of her prophecies have been published, the earliest being 80 years after she died. In that edition, most of the prophecies were about local events, and there was no mention of the end of the world. The most famous booklet of prophecies, the one that mentions the end of the world, was first published in 1862 by a man called Charles Hindley who admitted later that he’d made the whole thing up. His version ended with the words, “The world to an end shall come In eighteen hundred and eighty one.” Later reprints changed the date to 1981, and then 1991. Another doomsday reference was ”The world shall end when the High Bridge is thrice fallen” – this may refer to the High Bridge at Knaresborough which has fallen twice so far. However, Charles Hindley’s admission casts doubt on not only the prophecies, but whether any of Old Mother Shipton’s known life story is true, or if she existed at all.
9. If she did exist, she died in 1561 aged 73. The cave where she spent her time is now a tourist attraction – possibly the oldest in England, as tourists have been visiting it since 1630. There is a well there fed by an underground lake. The Water travels through an aquifer and as it goes, dissolves minerals which solidify when they come into contact with objects in the well. Anything left there long enough effectively turns to stone. It’s also said that if you dip your hand in the well, make a wish, let your hand dry naturally and not tell anyone your wish, it will come true.
10. She had a number of pubs named after her, although only two still exist – one in Knaresborough and one in Portsmouth. She had a Moth named after her too – the Mother Shipton moth, which has wing markings resembling the face of a hook-nosed hag in profile.

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Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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February 28: National Tooth Fairy Day

Today is National Tooth Fairy Day. The Tooth Fairy is a figure from folklore who visits children after they lose their baby teeth, exchanging Money for a tooth left under a pillow.

1. The Tooth Fairy as a character is a relatively new idea. The first mention of a tooth fairy occurred in the Chicago Daily Tribune in 1908. A reader called Lillian Brown wrote in with a helpful hint for parents: "Many a refractory child will allow a loose tooth to be removed if he knows about the tooth fairy. If he takes his little tooth and puts it under the pillow when he goes to bed the tooth fairy will come in the night and take it away, and in its place will leave some little gift."
2. In Europe in the Middle Ages, customs surrounding lost baby teeth were quite different. Back then, the thing to do with a lost tooth was to burn it, because if they didn't, the child would spend the whole of eternity looking for it in the afterlife. They also believed back then that if a Witch got hold of a tooth, they would have power over the child. 13th century Muslim children would throw their teeth up into the sky and pray for a better tooth to replace it, while in Scandinavia, the idea of money for teeth had already established itself, although parents would pay the "tooth fee" to the child rather than a fairy. Vikings had a use for the teeth. They made them into necklaces to wear in battle as lucky talismans.
3. The Tooth Fairy collects about 300,000 teeth from children all over the world every night. So what does she do with them? According to folklore, the teeth are used for buildings and jewellery in fairyland.
4. And the going rate for teeth? It depends, not surprisingly, on how well off the family is, but a survey in 2013 found that the going rate in America was an average of $3.70 per tooth. Insurance group Delta Dental have also made studies of this and found that Tooth Fairy gifts also fluctuate with the stock market. Also, children in the north east of the USA get more generous gifts from the Tooth Fairy than kids in the south west.
5. What does the Tooth Fairy look like? There's no consensus, like there is for Santa Claus. A 1984 survey on what people thought the Tooth Fairy looked like found that 74% thought it was female, while 12% thought it was neither male nor female, or could be either. Some less conventional answers to the question included a Bear, a Bat, a Dragon, or even "a potbellied, cigar smoking, jeans clad tiny flying male." In books, the Tooth Fairy can be anything from a pixie or child with wings to a slightly older maternal figure, a dental hygienist or a dragon. Films have presented us with even more variations such as a muscular man, played by former wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
6. In parts of Europe, the Tooth Fairy is a mouse. In France and Belgium, La Petite Souris ("the little mouse") comes for the teeth and it is customary to leave out a piece of Cheese along with the tooth. In Italy and Spain, they also have a mouse, known as Topolino and Ratoncito Pérez respectively. In the Basque Country there's yet another variation, called Mari Teilatukoa (Mary from the roof). There, children don't put their teeth under their pillows, but lob them onto the roof of their house for Mary to collect.
7. In the 1970s, there was a "Tooth Fairy Consultant." Her name was Rosemary Wells, and she carried out extensive studies into the origins of the Tooth Fairy and traditions associated with her/him/it. She wrote any number of articles on the subject and even appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show. During the course of her research, she collected piles of memorabilia, and in 1993 she opened a Tooth Fairy Museum in her home, which became a popular destination for school outings. The museum closed, however, after she died in 2000.
8. Another scientist called Dr. Harriet Hall coined the term "Tooth Fairy Science" to describe perfectly designed scientific experiments and studies into things that don't really exist. Hall was extremely skeptical about alternative medicine, and used the term to describe studies about that.
9. The Tooth Fairy is commonly used as a means to bribe small children into looking after their teeth. Children are told that clean, brushed teeth with no decay will bring a better reward from the Tooth Fairy. In Scandinavia, though, there's a stick rather than a carrot - there, there is a "tooth troll" which comes for children who don’t brush their teeth.
10. The Tooth Fairy even appears on coins. In 2011 and 2012, the Royal Canadian Mint issued Tooth Fairy quarters.

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June 23rd: Midsummer Eve/St John's Eve

Today is Midsummer Eve, also St John's Eve. Here are a few of the superstitions and customs associated with today.

1. If it rains on midsummer-eve, the filberts will be spoiled, according to a traditional English proverb.
2. Fairies are said to speak in human tongues on this night.
3. Fern seed gathered on this night was reputed to have the power to turn people invisible. Hemp seed sown at midnight by a single woman reciting "Hemp-seed I sow, hemp-seed I hoe, and he that is my true love come after me and mow" would bring her future husband to her. St John's Wort was also gathered to hang over doorways and windows to protect the residents from Witches and also to put in drinks to cure madness, sciatica, epilepsy and paralysis. Salve made from the herb cured wounds from spears and swords. St John's Wort is a proven anti-depressant, so there was some truth in it. Vervain, trefoil and rue were also believed to have magical properties and would be picked on this night.
4. In Ireland they used to believe that the souls of the living leave their bodies tonight, and wander to the place, by land or sea, where they will eventually die.
5. This might have been the origin of the custom of lighting bonfires and staying up all night to greet the rising Sun. People would jump through the fires, and set Fire to wheels and roll them down hills.
6. There were a lot of customs aimed at young women finding out who they were going to marry. In Britain, it was the custom for an unmarried woman to fast then lay out a cloth at midnight with Bread and Cheese. She'd sit down ready to eat, leaving the front door open. Her future husband would enter the room, salute her with a bow, then leave. Or, a more patient maiden would pick a sprig of St John’s wort and wear it in her bosom until Christmas, by which time the man who was to be her husband would see it and take it from her. Some of the customs were more social in nature with girls getting together and washing dresses, which they would place in front of the fire to dry; the likeness of their future husbands would come and turn the dresses and drink a toast to their future brides. Or they'd make a dumb cake. Two of them had to make it, two break it, and a third would put it under each of their pillows, all in complete silence, so the first two would dream of their future husbands. Or if baking wasn't their thing, they could dig up the root of the mugwort plant, and place it under their pillows for the same result. Or, they might hang up Midsummer Men, cuttings of a herb called orpin, in pairs, one representing them and one representing their sweetheart. If the springs leaned towards each other, their romance was well starred. If one withered, it foretold a death.
7. There is a legend in Stanton Drew, Somerset, UK, which says that once when Midsummer's Eve fell on a Saturday, there was a wedding, and the guests celebrated with gusto. At midnight, the fiddler declared he had to stop playing as it was now Sunday, the Lord's Day. The bride wanted to carry on celebrating and said she'd carry on dancing even if she had to go to Hell for a musician. At that moment, a gaily-dressed fiddler appeared, and readily agreed to play for them. Later, when they were exhausted and asked him to stop, he wouldn't - and they couldn't stop dancing, either. In the morning, there was no sign of the revellers in the field, but in their place was a stone circle. The stones are still there today.
8. In Germany, an old St John’s Eve custom is to place a wreath on the door of homes, because St John the Baptist walks through the streets tonight and bows to any home which has a wreath.
9. At Oxford, a sermon used to be preached from a stone pulpit in a corner of Magdalen College. The court was decked with green boughs so the preaching would resemble that of John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness.
10. In the middle ages, about two thousand men would parade through the streets of London, wearing flowers and jewels. The watchmen, as they were called, carried tar-burning torches called cressets, and there'd be bonfires in the streets. Henry VIII banned the custom, probably afraid of a large crowd of armed men.

2nd March: Holy Wells Day

The feast of Ceadda, Celtic deity of healing springs, christianised as St Chad, patron saint of holy wells. Here are some things you may not know about holy wells:

1. There are thousands of holy wells in the British Isles. Some areas of the country have more than others. Over a hundred holy wells exist in Cornwall, for example. Other areas where there are a lot of them include South West Wales, Scotland, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire. The East of England has relatively few.
2. What were they for? They are usually associated with healing, either generally, or for specific ailments, such as rickets. Infertility was a common reason for visiting some wells. Others were visited by people wanting to know the future, such as girls wanting to know who they would marry. A female oracle was often associated with a well.
3. While many holy wells date back to pagan times, often they became Christinaised and associated with saints or the Virgin Mary.
4. Usually healing or future visions were only granted if people visited at the right time and performed the right ritual before bathing in or drinking the waters. Typically, you would need to visit on the appropriate saint's day, or on one of the traditional festival days such as Midsummer or Beltane, usually at dawn. You would also have to approach the well from a particular direction and walk around it a certain number of times, often in silence.
5. Some of the requirements could be quite gruesome. In some places, the water had to be drunk out of a human Skull or a special cup made from a human skull. For example, Llandeilo in Dyfed, Wales, the waters had to be drunk from the skull of Saint Teilo, the titular saint of the ruined church in which the well was located.
6. It was common also to leave an offering behind. Coins and pins were commonly left. At some wells, a piece of rag would be tied nearby, for example, to a tree. The idea here was often that as the rag rotted, the disease would go away. So don't leave anything made of synthetic fabrics, just biodegradable stuff!
7. Another belief about holy wells was that they were entrances to the other world. As such they would have guardians, often a fish of some kind. In the waters of Ffynnon Gybi (Gwyneth, North Wales) it was an Eel and it was believed that if the eel came and coiled around the patient's legs, the request for healing had been granted, and if it didn't, they stayed sick.
8. The healing properties of wells may not be entirely down to superstition. Some wells actually do have healing properties because of the minerals in them.
9. Wells usually produce Water, but there are examples of some which are said to produce Milk on certain dates instead. At the well of St.Illtyd near Swansea, Wales, for example, milk is said to flow at midsummer.
10. Many British villages still hold annual well dressing ceremonies where the wells are decorated with flower petals, leaves, berries, moss, feathers, seeds and cones, sometimes arranged into pictures of Biblical scenes.

26th October: Howl at the Moon Day

It's Howl at the Moon Day, so in honour of that, and in time for Halloween in a few days' time, here are ten things you may not know about werewolves:

1. How do you become one? The common method in modern literature is to be bitten by a werewolf, but in the ancient legends, this is hardly mentioned at all. Instead, werewolves are created by: eating a mixture of wolf and human meat; eating wolf brains; being cursed; being conceived under a new moon or by two parents who are werewolves; eating certain herbs; sleeping under the full moon on Friday; drinking water that has been touched by a wolf; drinking water from a wolf’s pawprint; making a pact with the devil or wearing a wolfskin belt.
2. In some countries, they believe that the seventh child, in particular a seventh son, will become a werewolf. A seventh son in Portugal was often named Bento (Portuguese for Benedict) which means blessed, which would prevent him becoming a werewolf.
3. The word werewolf means "man wolf" as "wer" is an old word for man. Wolves are not the only creatures people could turn into. There are were-foxes, were-Dogs, were-Tigers, were-Snakes, were-Hares, were-bears and were-crocodiles; not forgetting the were-Rabbit of Wallace and Gromit fame.
4. The legend of the werewolf has been around a long time. There are werewolf tales dating back to Ancient Greece. Herodotus, in his Histories,wrote about the Neuri tribe who were transformed into wolves once every year for several days, and then changed back to their human shape.
5. Most fictional werewolves tend to be depicted as men, but in Armenian lore, there are female werewolves. They are women who have committed deadly sins and are condemned to live as wolves for seven years. They will be ordered by a spirit to wear a wolf skin which causes the transformation. They will eat their children, then their relatives' children and finally strangers' children. Locked doors spring open when such a creature approaches so bolting the door to keep her away from the kids is ineffective.
6. Some of the legends may have originated from medical conditions which mimic the appearance or behaviour of a werewolf. These include hypertrichosis, which creates unusually long hair on the face and body; and porphyria: extreme sensitivity to light (thus encouraging its victims to only go out at night), seizures and anxiety. There is also a recognised medical condition called lycanthropy where a person believes they are an animal - not necessarily a werewolf, although in some cases people will make such a claim. Today, such people will be treated with drugs or therapy but in the middle ages they would not get off so lightly. In 1589, a German man named Peter Stubbe claimed to own a belt of wolfskin that allowed him to change into a wolf with a craving for human blood. He was decapitated on Halloween 1589, and his headless body burned at the stake.
7. The codename used by the Nazis for one of Hitler's headquarters was Werwolf (as it's spelled in German).
8. Although usually associated with curses and the devil, Christian saints have been known to turn people into wolves. St Thomas Aquinas said, "All angels, good and bad have the power of transmutating our bodies". St Patrick was said to have transformed the Welsh king Vereticus into a wolf; St. Natalis cursed a whole family whose members were doomed to be wolves for seven years. In 1692 a man named Thiess claimed, not only that he was a werewolf, but that werewolves were not evil but in fact were "the Hounds of God" - warriors who went down into hell to fight witches and demons to stop them stealing the abundance of the earth and carry it off to hell. When werewolves died, their souls were welcomed into heaven as reward for their service. Thiess got ten lashes for superstitious belief.
9. How to cure a werewolf. While some legends suggest it is a lifestyle people can choose and control, eg by putting on a wolfskin belt, for most it is a curse and they are unfortunate victims. So apart from the commonly quoted Silver bullet/dagger, how does one get rid of a werewolf? Unlike vampires, they have no problem with crucifixes and holy water, but they do have an aversion to the herb wolfsbane. Other cures include: surgery; exorcism; drinking vinegar; removal of the animal belt or skin; kneeling in one spot for a hundred years; striking three times on the forehead with a knife; having at least three drops of Blood drawn; throwing an Iron object over or at the werewolf, to make it reveal its human form. Some of the so called cures were so brutal that the "werewolf" wouldn't survive to become "normal."
10. How to recognise a werewolf. Listed below are some of the signs which can indicate that someone is a werewolf:

• Red hair
• Eyebrows that meet in the middle
• Broad hands with unusually long ring fingers and reddish, almond shaped fingernails
• Hair on the palms of their hands or under the skin and bristles under the tongue.
• In the hours before they change werewolves gain acute hearing, animal strength, and a heightened sense of smell. Their skin also darkens during this time.
• They are thirsty, pale and tired looking the day after a full moon.
• Werewolves have long swinging strides like that of a prowling wolf.
• Werewolves have extra glands that emit nasty smells such as stale hay and horse manure.
• Unusually early sexual attraction to the opposite sex (ie by about the age of seven).
• They keep large pets which often disappear and are replaced by new ones.
• A tendency to hang around graveyards, mortuaries and fatal accidents.
• Bluish-red blood and deep purple urine.

2nd February: Candlemas

Candlemas Day is the day on which the Virgin Mary was purified in the temple after the birth of Jesus. Traditionally, churches bless candles today. It is a cross-quarter day and in some years the festival of Imbolc falls on this date. Not surprisingly, it has become a day rich in tradition, so here are some of the world's Candlemas customs:

1. Predicting the weather is a common one. Typically a creature of some kind emerges from its hole, and if the Sun is shining it goes right back in again, because sun on this date is only a temporary blip before winter returns in earnest, whereas bad weather is a good sign. Which animal it is depends on where in the world you happen to be. In Germany, it's a Badger; in France, it's a Bear, and in the USA, it's the Groundhog - hence "Groundhog Day".
2. If Christmas decorations aren't removed from the church by now, there will be a death in the family of the pew where the decoration is still up.
3. In France, crepes are eaten after 8pm. If the person cooking them can flip one while holding a coin in their other hand, the family will be prosperous in the coming year...
4. ...Which could have a knock-on effect for next Candlemas if you live in Scotland, where it was traditional for children to give their teachers money. The boy and girl who gave the most would be declared the King and Queen of Candlemas and they would be carried through the streets.
5. Still in Scotland, landlords would visit their tenants today and ask if they wanted to stay another year.
6. Large Football matches were another Scottish tradition where half the town would take on the other half in the streets. The most famous annual game is played in Jedburgh, and it's said that this game was originally played with the severed heads of any Englishmen who'd had the audacity to try and cross the border.
7. Sailors didn't like to start a journey on this day, believing that if they did, the trip would end in disaster.
8. Another superstition is that it's unlucky to borrow Money on Candlemas day, as it means you will never be able to afford to pay it back.
9. Candlelight processions are another common theme, said to promote fertility in the fields before crops are planted. There may be bonfires as well.
10. Some traditions of witches hold their initiation ceremonies on this date.

6th January: Epiphany

Epiphany means appearance of a god. It celebrates the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus. 10 Epiphany traditions from around the world:

1. Spain Children leave straw out for the Magis' Camels, and the Magi leave gifts for the children.
2. Mexico Celebrated with rosca de reyes, a ring-shaped loaf of sweet bread baked with fruit. Inside is a small figurine of the baby Jesus. The person who finds the baby in their slice has to give a party on February 2nd.
3. France A coin or bean is baked into a cake, and whoever finds it is made king for the day. The French have an expression, “He has found the bean in the cake”, which means that a person has extremely good luck.
4. Bulgaria Housewives rise early and carry the family crucifix, icons and plough to the village fountain, where they wash them.
5. Italy Italians believe that animals can talk on the night of Epiphany so owners feed them well.
6. Syria It is said that trees bow at midnight to honour the Christ child, and miracles occur.
7. Former Yugoslavia A cross is thrown into a body of water and young men dive in after it.
8. German water diviners cut their wands today. A stick is dedicated to Caspar to find gold, Balthasar for silver and Melchior for water.
9. Muslims believe that on this night the angel Gabriel brought the Koran from heaven to Mohammed.
10. Isle of Man At Twelfth Night parties, the fiddler would lay his head on the lap of each girl present in turn. Another person would ask who she would marry. The fiddler’s answer would be taken as an oracle. 

24th December: Christmas Eve traditions from around the world

It's Christmas Eve. So here are 10 Christmas Eve customs from around the world.

1. Old England: Yule log. A huge log would be dragged into the house and lit with a sliver of last year's Yule log, which had been stored in the cellar all year as protection from fire. The resulting fire would burn out past wrongs; but it was considered very bad luck if anyone entered the room in bare feet while it was burning. A person with a squint or flat feet was also a bad omen.
2. New Forest: People would douse the Apple and Pear trees with cider to ensure a good harvest the following year.
3. Germany: not such a great place to be an apple tree, as there, the trees would be beaten to ensure a good harvest rather than having booze thrown at them. People there would leave a loaf of Bread out on the window sill nearest the church overnight. This would infuse the bread with healing powers and the family would eat it the next day.
4. Norway and Sweden: The traditional Christmas Eve meal is codfish treated with lye.
5. Former Czechoslovakia: People would tell tales about a mythical golden pig and eat cod's roe soup.
6. Venice: Here the traditional meal is Lasagne made with dried fruit, pine nuts and candied orange peel.
7. Nineteenth Century England: The game of snapdragon: brandy was poured over a dish of raisins and set alight. The object of the game was to pick a raisin out of the bowl using bare hands.
8. Finland: Ghosts of departed loved ones traditionally visit, so white candles are lit on family graves. Although in England, an old proverb says that a ghost will never appear on Christmas Eve - but it was a good idea to open all the doors on Christmas Eve and let negative energy out, just in case.
9. Old England: Divining of future husbands. Single girls would wear to church a Rose they had picked on Midsummers' Day and kept in white Paper. The man who came and took it from her would be her future husband. Forgot to pick a rose on Midsummer? Another spell involved baking a cake on Christmas Eve and marking your initials on it. By morning, the initials of your future spouse would have miraculously appeared.
10. Cornwall and Devon: It was believed that bees would hum the 100th psalm in their hives on Christmas Eve.

Happy Christmas!

My Christmas Novella!

A Very Variant Christmas

Last year, Jade and Gloria were embroiled in a bitter conflict to win back their throne and their ancestral home. This year, Queen Jade and Princess Gloria want to host the biggest and best Christmas party ever in their palace. They invite all their friends to come and bring guests. Not even the birth of Jade's heir just before Christmas will stop them.

The guest list includes most of Britain's complement of super-powered crime-fighters, their families and friends. What could possibly go wrong?

Gatecrashers, unexpected arrivals, exploding Christmas crackers and a kidnapping, for starters.

Far away in space, the Constellations, a cosmic peacekeeping force, have suffered a tragic loss. They need to recruit a new member to replace their dead colleague. The two top candidates are both at Jade and Gloria's party. The arrival of the recruitment delegation on Christmas Eve is a surprise for everyone; but their visit means one guest now faces a life-changing decision.

Meanwhile, an alliance of the enemies of various guests at the party has infiltrated the palace; they hide in the dungeon, plotting how best to get rid of the crime-fighters and the royal family once and for all. Problem is, they all have their own agendas and differences of opinion on how to achieve their aims.

Not to mention that this year, the ghosts who walk the corridors of the palace on Christmas Eve will be as surprised by the living as the living are by them.

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