By Lacey Williams Ask anyone in Appalachia about our weather lately and they’ll tell you that spring here takes its time showing up. It sleeps in. It climbs out of bed slowly and stubborn-like. But when it does finally arrive, it’s with a list of chores that need to be done right away. By the time you start to smell the mud that’s peeking out from under the leftover snow, the traditions are already well under way. It’s more than just spring cleaning, though. In Appalachia, w

By Lacey Williams Before silver bells and twinkling lights, there was a different kind of Christmas tradition. In the deep snow drifts and harsh winters in the mountains of Iceland, Gryla the Christmas Witch was born. As the personification of winter and darkness taking over the land, Gryla’s story began out of survival and was shaped by scarcity. Long before Santa came to reward good children, Gryla came to punish them. In the early weeks of winter, when daylight barely st

By: Lacey Williams In the quiet hours just before midnight, when the world is in-between years, the residents of Appalachia listen to their elders and ancestors, and to the wisdom they passed down around coal camps and kitchen fires. Everyone in the mountains knows how you greet the new year is how the new year treats you. New Year’s isn’t just a celebration here; it’s a ritual where the unseen matters just as much as the seen. With a mixture of cultures intertwining such as

By: Lacey Williams Mornings in Appalachia start slow. The steep hills and towering trees mean the sun takes its time waking up, stretching and yawning, breathing life into the forests at its own pace. Most mornings, the sun burns away the fog of the night. But other times, the fog fights back, refusing to reveal all the secrets it hides. People in the mountains will tell you that the forests have their own ways of communicating. The caw of ravens, the rustling of wind throug