Features – Page 3 – Manchester Historian

Sati is a Hindu funerary custom where a widow immolates herself on her husband’s funeral pyre or commits suicide in another manner shortly after her husband’s death. The now-obsolete act first dates back to the fourth century BCE and is considered to have originated within the Kshatriya (warrior) caste in India. The practice was widespread among Continue Reading

Nearly 2800 years ago, citizens from all over the Greek world flocked to Olympia for one of the most central rituals in Ancient Greece – the Olympic Games. Perhaps unknown to many people, the Games were as much a religious festival as they were a celebration of athletic strength and power. This great event was Continue Reading

On 1st September 2016, 1,000,000 people marched on Caracas in the largest demonstration in Venezuelan history. You might ask why, but the answer depends upon who you ask. The protests started in February 2014 following the attempted rape of a student on a university campus in San Cristóbal. However, the roots of this civil conflict Continue Reading

Whilst the social and political elite in exclusive universities had held the monopoly on scholarship for centuries, Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in 1440 revolutionized the potential for learning for ordinary people. The shift from laboriously copying out manuscript to reproducing thousands of copies at a time drove the momentum towards our current Continue Reading

To the British observer, the American celebration of Thanksgiving can seem quite a strange and alien affair. In fact Thanksgiving stems from the tradition in many European countries of celebrating the Harvest. However the American tradition isthe most well known and widely celebrated. Though alike with its European contemporaries in giving thanks for plentiful food, Continue Reading