rebekah shaw – Manchester Historian

Solstice occurs in June and December, and marks the longest and shortest days of the year, as well as the change of season. It is commonly associated with the ancient European Druids, but many global cultures also hold these times of year as periods of spirituality. ‘Solstice’ means ‘sun stands still’, and hence it has Continue Reading

At the Council of Clermont in 1095, Pope Urban II preached for the First Crusade as an ‘armed pilgrimage’: a penitential war that imitated the suffering of Christ whilst recapturing the Holy Land of Jerusalem from the Muslims. This appealed to many different members of Western European society, from lowly peasants who normally worked on Continue Reading