May 31, 2022

Fly Fishing: Art and Science

It’s the height of fly fishing season in New York’s Catskill Mountains, home to some of the finest trout streams in the world.

May 30, 2022

Fly Tying

The goal of fly fishing is to attract fish with an artificial fly that looks like a real insect. These flies can be bought, but serious anglers tie their own.

May 27, 2022

Fly Fishing: Skills

If you can cast a weightless fly to a very precise location, you’ve mastered one of the many skills of fly fishing.

May 26, 2022

Fly Fishing: History

Fly fishing is now popular at all levels of society, but the sport started 500 years ago as a pastime for wealthy aristocrats.

May 25, 2022

A Rancher’s Year

It’s branding time on a New Mexico cattle ranch, but when you’re raising and selling thousands of head of cattle, there’s work to be done all year long.

May 24, 2022

Life on a Ranch

The life of a New Mexico cattle rancher is a constant cycle of breeding, branding and mending fences. Carlos Cornay wouldn’t have it any other way.

May 23, 2022

Cattle: Branding

May is a busy month at a cattle ranch in New Mexico. It’s branding time, and all the friends and family lend a hand.

May 6, 2022

Playing With Bugs

The natural world comes alive in a way that only music can express.

May 5, 2022

Water Boatmen

Even in the most ordinary ponds you can hear an amazing world of sound.

May 4, 2022

Pond Music

Meet an interspecies musician.

May 3, 2022

May Day – Fertility

May Day is an ancient celebration of fertility and rebirth.

May 2, 2022

May Day – Traditions

The May Day custom of dancing around a May Pole dates back to pre-Christian days.

April 22, 2022

Greek Orthodox Easter – Conquering Death

This week, Greeks around the world celebrate one of their most important holidays of the year – Orthodox Easter.

April 21, 2022

Greek Orthodox Easter – Bringing Light

Beautiful hymns mark the celebration of Easter at the first Greek Orthodox Church in the Americas.

April 14, 2022

Authenticity

What might a dinosaur skeleton and a cable car have in common?

April 13, 2022

Songkran – Thai New Year

It’s the hottest time of the year in Thailand, and the traditional Thai New Year’s celebration offers a proven remedy for the heat.

March 18, 2022

Holi

India becomes a much more colorful place as people lay aside their differences in celebration of Holi.

March 7, 2022

Ice Boats

When the weather’s been cold and the Hudson River freezes over, that’s when ice boats may be sailing on the river.

March 4, 2022

Tickling Society

In the rural Cajun communities of south Louisiana, Mardi Gras is organized mayhem.

March 3, 2022

As Long as There’s Been an Earth

Basile, Louisiana has its own unique Mardi Gras song.

March 2, 2022

Donnez-moi Un Petit Sou

In the bayous of Louisiana, costumed revelers beg for food and money from their neighbors, to support a communal gumbo.

March 1, 2022

The Biggest Day

“Forget about your job, your worries, your bills..”

February 28, 2022

Feast Before Fast

The roots of Mardi Gras run deeper than Christianity.

February 7, 2022

Honoring the Needles of Yore

Harikuyo is a memorial service for the broken sewing needles of the past year, celebrated across Japan.

January 12, 2022

Hatsumode

Hatsumode is the ritual first visit of the year to a Japanese Shinto or Buddhist temple.

January 11, 2022

In the Presence of Royalty

Haitian Vodou is a source of strength and solace to its followers, in the face of widespread poverty and despair.

January 10, 2022

Dancing the Machete

The ritual of Coupez Gateau is one of the ways the celebration of Epiphany has been incorporated into Haitian Vodou.

January 7, 2022

Day of the Kings

In Haiti, the feast of the Epiphany is celebrated in both Catholic and Vodou traditions.

January 6, 2022

Food Fit For Kings

Three Kings Day is a festival for the palate.

January 4, 2022

Mummers Parade – History

The flamboyance of the Mummers’ Parade arose from the masquerade balls of Philadelphia society.

January 3, 2022

Mummers Parade – String Bands

Revered in Philadelphia since 1902.

December 31, 2021

Year End Fire Watch

“Be careful with fire!” is the call heard throughout Tokyo neighborhoods on the last two evenings of the year.

December 27, 2021

Kwanzaa Traditions

This week, millions of people around the world celebrate Kwanzaa, a relatively new holiday with roots in the ancient harvest festivals of Africa.

December 24, 2021

Christmas Bonfires

Along the banks of the Mississippi River, a line of Bonfires lights the way for Papa Noel.

December 23, 2021

Wassail Night

An ancient Anglo-Saxon tradition called “Wassail” lives on in Pennsylvania, where a group of friends celebrate this week by drinking to the health of apple trees.