Exploring Egypt During Ramadan
In the predawn hours of my first morning in Aswan, Egypt, I woke up to the chants of a call to prayer reverberating from mosque minarets. It’s Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of observance, and the melodic cadence of these Arabic words resonated daily, beckoning the faithful to nearby mosques for the 5 am prayer. […]
Christmas Crafts from the Village of Lauscha
The age-old art of handmade, glass-blown, and paper mache Christmas ornaments lives on in the village of Lauscha, in Germany’s ancient Thuringian Forest. One of my favorite Christmas memories as a child was unspooling the tissue paper-wrapped silvered Christmas ornaments compartmentalized in cardboard boxes. The entire sensory experience still stirs my soul, starting with the […]