Europe’s biggest fire festival lights up Shetland in the new year. What is it? Up Helly Aa is one of numerous fire festivals that ...

Fireflies are especially beloved in Japan, where they’ve provided a rich source of art   Drab brown beetles by day and captivating spar ...

The famous figure of Greek myth stole fire from the gods and gave it to man  Who is he? In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan god of fir ...

The Olympic torch is rich in symbolism – and its design always generates headlines. Some are more successful than others: here are five that ...

As the thirty-second Olympiad kicks off in Tokyo today, after a year’s delay, we look back at the history of the Olympic flame – an ins ...

From the Great Wall of China to Ancient Greece, smoke signals were one of the earliest forms of visual communication – a fascinating medium ...

The lesser-known form of traditional Chinese medicine is often used in breech births. Many of us are now familiar with cupping: placing glas ...

In Slavic folklore and myth, this supernatural spirit can bring doom or blessing to its captor. What is it? The Firebird, which appears in n ...

An emeritus professor at Arizona State University, Stephen Pyne specialises in environmental history, the history of exploration and – above ...

Videos of roaring fireplaces have gone viral in the past decade, but the peculiar phenomenon of fake fire television dates back far longer. ...

This enduring Greek myth involves a fearsome female fire-breathing hybrid beast. What is it? The Chimera (‘she-goat’ in Ancient Greek) is a ...

As much as a certain shade of blue, fire was aesthetic perfection for the artist Yves Klein. In 1961, a year before his death, he travelled ...