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Evergreen trees have been synonymous with Christmas for centuries. Early Romans used evergreens to decorate their temples for Saturnalia, a festival they celebrated in December. When Christians began associating the birth of Christ with these previously existing winter holidays, t

One of the first Christmas tree-decorating ceremonies involved adorning a fir tree with paper flowers, singing and dancing around it, and then—brace yourself—lighting the entire thing on fire. According to The New York Times, that all took place in the town square of

Some people say Thomas Edison himself did this, but let's not let Edison take more credit than he deserves. It was actually his colleague and friend, Edward Johnson, who first thought of putting electric lights on a Christmas tree instead of the traditional candles, according to the

While it sounds ominous, this tradition is actually rooted in a heartwarming folktale about a poor widow who found a Christmas tree for her children. However, she had no money to decorate it, so on Christmas Eve, she went to bed crying. That night, spiders heard her tears and proceeded to cover the tree with delicate, glistening webs. Some v

Don't be alarmed if you see a tree hanging upside down from the ceiling. This trend actually originated in medieval times, according to The Spruce. Legend goes that a Benedictine monk used the triangle shape of the inverted tree to explain the Holy Trinity to pagans. But the idea really took off in the 1900s in Poland with podłazniczek, a c

According to a study conducted by researchers at the Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova and published in Nature Astronomy in 2021, a quarter of sun-like stars have a habit of swallowing up the planets around them. However, it's not likely that Earth will have to deal with this issue as the study focused on systems that have binary pairs of stars instead of a single one like our own

These days, the Olympic Games are where top athletes from all over the world come together to compete. However, between 1912 and 1948, the international event also handed out medals for creative practices, such as painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, and music.

Cleopatra was an incredibly powerful ruler who could indulge in the kind of luxuries others could never even imagine. For example, when she was vacation on Sedir Island in Turkey, she wasn't satisfied with the beaches.

Geocaching is an international game that involves players deciphering clues and going on stash-seeking adventures, using GPS and a geocaching app—kind of like a digital/analog combination scavenger hunt. As of 2008, there's even a geocache target to be found on the International Space Station.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign horticulture educator Martha Smith notes in a 2011 article that, back in the 1620s, "tulips were worth more than gold." Why were these particular plants so pricey? "Initially the tulip was a rarity only the very wealthy could afford," she further explains. Indeed, at the time, a single

When you fall asleep at night, do you prefer to be in a fetal position, flat on your back, or sprawled out on your stomach? There may be more to how you sleep than just what makes you comfortable. According to The Telegraph (via Dreams.co.uk), sleep experts have found a correlation between a person's preferred nightly position and their personality.

There are a lot of things happening in our bodies that we have no control over. For instance, most of us can't control the size of our pupils unless we do something like alter the amount of light that is directed into our eyes. However, in a study published in the International Journal of Psychophysiology in 2021, researchers observed a man who can apparently change the size of his pupil on command. Currently, he is the only individual known to be able to do this—although you could give it a try if you want