Seasons

…and it’s quite unsettling

Winter sales kicked off this Monday, running through the end of February. Additionally, stores will extend their opening hours on Sundays, specifically on January 14 and January 21, 2024.

This season's winter sales will start on Monday, January 8 and last until the end of February. 

As on the first Sunday of every sales window, stores will be open next Sunday, January 14.

In anticipation of the festive season, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has announced bolstered security measures set to fortify key locations across Sofia. The press center of the Ministry disclosed plans to intensify police presence at pivotal hubs, aiming to ensure public safety during the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Avocados instead of cucumbers, mangos instead of oranges, guavas instead of watermelons, lychees instead of apricots: Such a prospect may look unrealistic for Greece right now, but it will not be so in not-too-distant future.

At full gallop, the horse emerges from the darkness and races through a string of bonfires in an ancient ritual to ward off sickness performed every January in a tiny Spanish village.

Known as Luminarias, the festival takes place every Jan. 16 in San Bartolome de Pinares, a village perched high in the hills about 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of Madrid.

Hurricane Ida is the fourth and to-date strongest storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season

Turkey has extended condolences to the Israeli government and people over the deadly stampede in northern Israel.

"We have received the news with sadness that many people lost their lives as a result of a stampede during a religious festival ceremony on Mount Meron in northern Israel," read a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry on April 30.

At least 44 people were crushed to death at an over-crowded religious bonfire festival in Israel on April 30, medics said, in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a "heavy disaster".   

The passage to a new year has been accompanied since ancient times by customs and rituals that are being observed even to this date, particularly in Romanian villages.