FREGER'S "WILDER MANN"

Cerbul (Stag), Corlata, Romania
(Click to enlarge)

Photographer Charles Fréger has a keen interest in pagan rituals and customs. In the winters of 2010 and 2011, he travelled to several countries to photograph pagan rituals connected to the onset of Winter, which he published in his book Wilder Mann.

"I found myself in front of something very radical, with no face," Fréger told Slate of his experience. "It was more of a character with a mask and a focus where the body is more important than the face itself."

It's like they are representing everything which is from outside of reality," Fréger explained to Interview.

DEATH MARKED THE BEGINNING OF LIFE IN ANCIENT EGYPT

A page from the Book of the Dead of Hunefer from around 1300 B.C.

A good portion of Japan’s summer is dedicated to honoring the dead. Memorial services in early August remember lives lost to the atomic bombings of 1945, while the Bon holidays pay respect to familial ancestors.

The Mori Arts Center Gallery in Tokyo is also set to commemorate the dead, but not the spirits of this country. July 7 sees the opening of “Journey Through the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead,” an exhibition from the British Museum in London that hopes to distinguish itself from previous Egypt-themed shows by focusing less on the riches of the civilization and more on its customs, beliefs and rituals.

BRITAIN'S PAGAN FOLKLORE: THE BRITANNIA COCO-NUTTERS

Britain has a wealth of folklore and tradition, much of which is rooted in a pre-Christian, pagan past that continues to live in much cherish local festivals. The above image by Henry Bourne is from his book Arcadia Britannica: A Modern British Folklore Portrait. It shows one of the Britannia Coco-nutters. Every Easter Saturday, the Coco-nutters black up and dance through the streets of the town of Bacup, England, stopping at pubs along the way.

The Pagan Sites of Europe Remembered (26): The Temple of Lacinian Hera in Southern Italy

The holiest pagan site in Magna Graecia, the part of Southern Italy settled by the Greeks, was the temple of Lacinian Hera. This was six miles from the then important city of Crotona on the Lacinian promontory.