Bonnie Nicol

Environment From Canberra to Tasmania with a mission It was summer, 2019, and Tyla Bickley, a Canberra-based adventure cyclist and environmental studies major, was three days into a 10-day solo cycling trip through Tasmania’s west coast. Earlier in the year, she had organised and led a multi-day group cycle of the Tasmanian Trail for Radical Adventure Riders, a US-based organisation that promotes inclusivity among women and genderqueer cyclists.

Art & Culture Poland Dispatch The Jukace — otherwise known as the Forefathers — are heralds of the ancient Slavic-pagan masquerade, Gody Żywieckie. Unique to the Polish city of Żywiec, they bring happiness, health, and good fortune, filling New Year’s Day with the clang of cowbells and the gunshot-like crack of their whips. It is an hour before midnight on New Year’s Eve in the small city of Żywiec, nestled at the base of the Beskid Mountains in southern Poland.

The Shetland Islands' Up Helly Aa, held annually in January in Lerwick, is one of hundreds of often-fiery festivals historian Averil Shepherd has attended and documented. In This Story On Midsummer’s Eve, the central square in Whalton, a small village in Northern England, glows red with fire. The Baal Fire tradition—locals build a bonfire and light it up—is intended to bless the season’s crops and has continued uninterrupted for centuries.