But before we get to talking of pagan festivities, let’s take a little detour to another springtime celebration: Passover – I promise, if you stick with me, it will all tie in together in the end.

The Time of Year Easter is celebrated is related to the celebration of Passover

Around the Spring time, Jews celebrate the holiday of Passover
(in Aramaic: פסחא or Pascha). Part of the Passover story is that the blood of sacrificial lambs was used to indicate to God to pass-over the God-abiding Jewish houses, to protect them from the plague that God cast over the area. Early Syrian Christians living alongside the Jews saw a connection between the blood of the sacrificial lambs in the Passover story and the figurative sacrificial lamb of Jesus Christ, so they celebrated the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ at the same time of the year as the Jewish celebration of Passover.

This ancient Easter-Passover-connection explains why in many non-English countries, the word for Easter is a variant of the word “Pascha” (Passover).
Examples of these related names for Easter:
Bulgarian: Paskha
Danish: Passke
Dutch: Pasen
Greek: Pascha
Italian: Pasqua
Finnish: Pääsiäinen
Indonesian: Paskah
Portuguese: Páscoa

How celebrating Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection at this time of year led to the naming of “Easter”

Ok, so what does this Passover connection have to do with pagans and the very different looking word “Easter”?

Well, around 325 AD, Christian bishops held a council (“the Council of Nicaea”) to help set a standard date to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Prior to this council meeting there had been some confusion amongst Christians regarding when the holiday should be celebrated and Christians in different countries held the celebration at different times. The Passover-related date that was being used in Syria and Alexandria, helped determine that the celebration should be held in the spring time.

It would seem understandable that the fact that spring time and the Spring Equinox is a time of rebirth for plants and flowers may have helped tie in the symbolic link to resurrection, though this is speculation and there is no evidence that the bishops in the council took this into consideration.

In any case, the result of this council meeting was that the holiday celebrating the resurrection of Christ should be celebrated in the spring time, on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring Equinox.

Meanwhile, in Northern Europe and in Anglo-Saxon England, another festival was being held around the Spring Equinox: The festival of Eostre.

Thanks to an ancient English scholar called Bede, who lived around 673-735 AD, we know that Anglo-Saxon English pagans worshipped a pagan goddess called “Eostre” (sometimes called Estre, Estara, Eastre or Ostara) and Eostre’s festival was celebrated in the Springtime during the Spring Equinox. Eostre was the goddess of dawn (the rebirth of a new day), fertility and spring (rebirth of plants & flowers), and it is believed that the word Easter originates from her name.

It is likely that since the Christian celebration of Christ’s resurrection was also celebrated during this time of year, Christians who were living alongside pagans, were influenced in seeing this time of year as being the time of the festival of Eostre. And so the name of this Christian holiday that was celebrated alongside Eostre’s festival, came to be called Easter.

Since the 1960s, the Bank of England has been printing significant people from British history on the official British banknotes. Most of us handle bank notes every day, but if I were to ask you to close your eyes and tell me who the people on the British bank notes are, would you be able to name them?

Even upon digging into wallets and pulling out the notes, most people may be surprised to find that they don’t recognise some of the historic figures honoured on English bank notes. But fear not! The answers are close at hand!

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£5 Note

The lady who has been on the £5 since 2002 is Elizabeth Fry and she’s not going to be on the fiver for very much longer – just until 2016. She was honoured for her philanthropy, humanitarian and social reform work in the 1800s. Throughout her life, she endeavoured to help the poor, the homeless and the needy. She is perhaps most famous her work with prisoners; fighting for the rights of female prisoners, campaigning for them to be treated in a more humane way and campaigning to improve their living conditions. Opposite her portrait on the banknote is an image of her at work, surrounded by women and children. Her work was appreciated by the highest of high society, and she is said to have even been granted an audience with Queen Victoria on more than one occasion. On an interesting side note, she was also a mother to 11 children!

In addition to her own meaningful work in society, my own personal speculation is that perhaps the fact that both her parents were important in the banking world may have helped her chances to get on a bank note. Her mother was from the Barclay family that founded Barclays Bank and her father was also an important bank man, being a partner at the then-well-respected Gurney’s Bank in Norwich, which later merged with Barclays Bank.

In 2016, the plans are to replace the Elizabeth Fry fiver with a new Winston Churchill five pound note, to honour his role as Prime Minister of the UK during World War II. You can see the image of this new banknote in this Guardian newspaper article.

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£10 Note

The current £10 note was first issued in the year 2000, and has an image of a man who most people would probably recognise: Charles Darwin; biologist and founding father of the theory of evolution. Alongside his portrait there are images of his ship, the HMS Beagle, that he used to travel the world to gather biological specimens and observations which helped him develop his great theory. The note also depicts a tool Darwin used: his magnifying lens, and some flora and fauna that he may have come across on his travels.

In 2017, the current plans are to replace the Darwin tenner with a £10 honouring the author Jane Austen, for her contributions to English literature. You can see the proposed design of the new ten pound note in this article here.

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£20 Note

The £20 note that was first published in 2007 shows a portrait of Adam Smith, a Scottish philosopher and economist from the 1700s; a man often cited as “the father of modern economics”. Besides his portrait is some text about one of his most famous contributions: his thoughts about the “division of labour”. His simple but then-groundbreaking idea was that if you divide up the labour efficiently between various specialized workers in a factory, efficiency would rise and a “great increase in the quantity of work” would result.

There are plans to replace Adam Smith on the banknote around 2018-2020.

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£50 Note

The £50 note that’s been in circulation since 2011 has two people on it: engineer and scientist, James Watt, and manufacturer Matthew Boulton. (You can see the image of this note here). Together they are both honoured for their roles in developing steam engine technology in the 1700s. Steam-driven machinery is particularly relevant to the banking industry because it was steam-driven machinery that had an important role in the minting of coins at Boulton’s Soho Mint.

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Other people who have been honoured on bank notes in the past include:
(I’ve linked each name to an image of the relevant banknote that I found online)

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Why write a novel?

12 reasons why people write books:

1.) Because it’s fun

Writing can be extremely enjoyable for some people. What makes it fun?

• The joy of succeeding to paint a picture with words
• The joy of invention and creation: creating something entirely new and original from nothing but your mind.
• The joy and release of self-expression of your thoughts, dreams and beliefs.
• The joy of the freedom to write whatever you want. You can take the story anywhere you wish. There are no boundaries.
• The joy of escaping into another world, one where you can write your dreams into existence and make them come true by living vicariously through your characters. It can be a world where dreams can come true, where you can say everything you’ve never dared to say in real life, where bad guys get their just desserts, good guys usually win and there’s often a happy ending.
• The joy of connecting with your characters and seeing them develop and overcome conflicts.

2.) Because you have something you want to say

You may write because you feel a strong sense of having something to say. This may be in the form of self-expression of a feeling where writing about it gives you some relief. In other instances you may want to write to share an important idea, a revelation you’ve made about how humans or society function, a profound realization about life, a strong belief you have or something you think will inspire others to feel better, to become better people or to help make the world a better place.

3.) Because you want to be the catalyst that brings the joy of reading to others through your book

I think it would be fair to say that most writers and wannabe authors would list reading as one of their hobbies because books have been a source of enjoyment and inspiration for them in the past. Some people can become inspired from reading a good book just because it makes them want to be able to stir in others those wonderful feelings they experienced while reading.

4.) Because having control over a fictional world can feel empowering

In life, many of us can go through times when we feel vulnerable, powerless or like we lack control over our lives. By writing a world where you essentially play god, it can give a great sense of empowerment. The fun thing is that even if you feel empowered from writing a piece of fiction, according to the Law of Attraction, the longer you spend focused on an activity which makes you feel empowered, the more likely you are to bring that feeling into other aspects of your real life too.

5.) For the pure challenge and its achievement

If you already know that you enjoy writing short stories, blogs, poetry, writing in your journal or anywhere else, a fun challenge you can set yourself is trying to write a novel, for the pure challenge.

During the process of writing a book you will most likely improve your writing skills and expand in this way.

For some it can help you feel like you’re proving yourself. Writing over 50,000 words can be akin to climbing a mountain. Both require skill and stamina, and both can feel like a great achievement when you complete them. For those who gain their self-confidence from external things, such an achievement can boost self-esteem.

6.) To connect with people and help them feel like they’re not alone

In life we often have a tendency to hide certain aspects of ourselves that are a bit dark or that we fear will be considered to be weird, wussy or otherwise unacceptable by society. When characters in books are portrayed as having such very human traits that we can secretly relate to, it can make us feel like we’re not alone. By writing a book with such characters (often based on yourself or other real people that you personally know) you as the author can feel like you’re helping people to feel like they’re less alone, and that act of reaching out to others in this very real, honest way can feel good.

7.) To leave something behind when we’re gone

As mortals, many of us have a desire to matter and to leave a mark on the world even after we’re long gone. By sharing a part of yourself through a book, you leave behind something that can outlive you by centuries. We’re still reading writing by the likes of Pliny the Elder and Homer almost 2000 years after they wrote them. If the thing that you leave behind has the potential of making a positive impact to the world in some way, all the better.

8.) For the pure experience

Why does someone want to taste a new food or visit a new country? For the experience. Writing a novel is an experience in itself which some people want to go through for the pure reason that they want to know what it feels like.

9.) To gain a feeling of acceptance from others

Whilst this may not be most psychologically healthy reason to write a novel, some people want to write in order to feel good from the positive feedback, compliments and general approval and acceptance of their writing. This is a slightly dangerous reason to write a novel because anyone who lets themselves determine their happiness based on the approval of others also can be particularly hurt in the event that their book doesn’t go down well.

10.) It’s cheaper than therapy or than taking a psychology course!

What better way to explore and understand your own behavior (and others’ behavior) than by getting it down on paper, questioning it, analysing it and researching it for the purpose of deeply understanding your characters? Writing a novel can be a great way of organizing our thoughts to help us learn about ourselves and others.

11.) It can be an excuse to study history whilst producing something useful with that information

History buffs can enjoy the excuse to read about a certain era in great depth and utilize that information to write an historic novel. Writing a book can give you a way to turn an interest in history into something that comes to life and which others can also enjoy.

12.) To make money from doing something you love

For those who enjoy writing as a hobby, what could be better than earning money from doing something you love? Much like successful actors or popstars, making it as an author has the potential to make you a lot of money if you’re amongst the ones who make it big.

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In post-Confucian ancient China (around 500BC – 200AD), at a time when scholarship was well-respected, it was believed to be uncivilized to serve meat at the table as a whole carcass that still looked like the animal. What’s more, it was considered rude to subject your guests to having to dissect the animal at the table like an aggressive warrior or violent barbarian. This way of thinking is well represented by this quote from Confucius that states: “The honorable and upright man keeps well away from both the slaughterhouse and the kitchen. And he allows no knives on his table.”

As a result, long before Europeans started chopping up their meat pre-being served at the table, in China the custom of dicing up food into small pieces was already established.

In order to easily eat the pre-cut food, chopsticks were developed as delicate, civilized tools perfect for picking up the dainty food pieces.

After the habit of eating with chopsticks was established in China, it slowly spread to other parts of Asia including Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan.

But where did the chopsticks come from?

Chopsticks had been around before they started being used as eating utensils. The earliest chopsticks that have been found date from around 1200BC and they seem to have been used to stir the fire, to serve food or to seize food rather than having their later purpose of picking up tiny food morsels.

It is likely that the first chopstick-like sticks developed as tools in food preparation over a fire, and these early tools probably arose from sticks and twigs primitive people found in their surroundings. Eventually these sticks evolved. Over time they started being carved out of more materials including bone, ivory, metal, jade, porcelain, bamboo, wood and eventually plastic. They gained more refined functions until they reached their famous purpose as the eating utensils that we’re familiar with today.

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Have you ever wondered why the Queen wears a crown? Would you be surprised to hear it has a religious origin?

If you’ve ever seen religious art, you’ll be familiar with the halos that are often painted around the heads of holy people and deities. This custom of painting golden halos around heads has been customary for centuries and can be seen in art depicting pagan deities from Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, as well as in artwork from Ancient Asia.

During these ancient times, Emperors, Kings and Queens were believed to have been given the gift to rule by the grace of God, so that it was generally believed that they had a relationship with God that made them closer to being holy than your average Joe on the street. Some even went so far as to claim direct familial links with deities. For example, the Pharaoh of ancient Egypt was believed to be the son of the Sun god, Ra and the Japanese Emperor was considered to be a descendant of the Sun goddess, Amaterasu. I need to research this further but seeing that sun gods were amongst the earliest pagan deities, I wonder if the sun-god connection may be linked to the sun-like rays that were drawn around royal and holy heads in paintings.

Here are a few images of deities and holy figures that have been pictured with different forms of halos:

To symbolize their privileged relationship with the divine, Emperors, Kings and Queens sought to emulate the “halo effect” that is so often seen in paintings by giving themselves a real life halo in the form of a crown.

Early crowns were made of feathers or (more famously) of gemstones and precious metals like gold.

To this day the British monarchy has retained the tradition of wearing a crown made of shiny precious metal and gemstones.

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• The GR post box
• The ER post box.

What is the meaning of these letters on the postboxes?

. . .

On many postboxes, the clue to the meaning of these letters is on the postbox itself because you’ll often find these letters seen right next to a crown.

The letters are called the “Royal Cypher” and they signify the King or Queen that was the monarch at the time when the postbox was erected.

A GR post box was put up during the era of King George (G stands for George, R stands for Rex, which is King in Latin). If there are no more letters around the GR, then it’s likely from the period of King George V, and if it’s from the era of King George VI you may notice a little “VI” next to the GR.

An ER post box was set up either during the rule of King Edward or during the time of Queen Elizabeth (E standing for Elizabeth or Edward, and R standing either for Rex or for Regina which is Queen in Latin). To know the exact monarch the postbox is honoring, have a look at the accompanying numbers. For example, if you notice a little “II” near the ER it indicates the postbox was installed in the era of Elizabeth II rather than in Edwardian times. Likewise, a “VII” or “VIII” after the ER indicates the E stands for Edward. You’ll never see a postbox from Elizabeth I’s era since she reigned between 1558-1603, long before the first red pillar post box was put up (in 1853).

Although GR and ER postboxes are perhaps the most commonly seen post boxes, you may also spot a VR on occasion. Next time you’re next to a post box, look out for these letters to work out when it was installed:

• VR post box – Queen Victoria (postbox put up between 1853-1901)
• ER VII post box – Edward VII (postbox put up between 1901-1910)
• GR post box – George V (postbox put up between 1910-1936)
• ER VIII post box – Edward VIII (postbox put up between 20 January 1936 – 11 December 1936 before he abdicated the throne to marry Wallis Simpson)
• GR VI post box – George VI (aka Bertie from the King’s Speech: postbox put up between 1936-1952)
• ER II post box – Elizabeth II (postbox put up between 1952-recently)

. . .

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Most of us in the Westernized world are familiar with the dentist’s office, and many of us are equally familiar with the butterflies and unease that accompany an impending visit to the dentist. For these people, they may find themselves asking: “Do I have to go to the dentist?” This article looks a little into why a visit to the dentist can be useful and important.

10 Reasons why to visit the dentist:

1.) To help keep your teeth and gums healthy and strong

Although dental damage can be treatable, once it occurs it’s often irreversible, so it’s helpful if a dentist will spot signs of potential problems before they even occur. Dentists examine the mouth very closely and are able to access how good your oral health is. If you are not brushing well or not quite reaching all the necessary areas in your flossing regime, a dentist can identify this and help guide you to improve your oral hygiene and the future health of your teeth.

2.) To enable you to eat and drink comfortably

It’s easy to take our teeth and gums for granted, but just ask someone with a cavity what it’s like to eat something sweet or cold, or ask someone with missing or dodgy teeth to eat something hard and crunchy and you’ll realize that it’s important to have healthy teeth to enable comfortable eating and drinking. Poor dental health can reduce the choices of foods and drinks you can eat. Visiting the dentist helps you keep strong teeth to enable you to enjoy the full spectrum of foods out there.

3.) To help you maintain good breath

A dentist’s help in maintaining your dental health is another step towards beating bad breath. With the dentist’s guidance for maintaining good oral hygiene, it can help prevent the build-up of oral bacteria which are behind bad breath in around 85-90% of cases.

4.) To help keep the appearance of your teeth beautiful

Throughout history, healthy, straight pearly whites have been a sign of beauty and this remains to be true today.

A dentist or specialized dental hygienist can help you keep your teeth beautifully white by doing a thorough dental cleaning treatment using special equipment which is superior to a normal toothbrush . It can remove plaque, tartar and staining from things like coffee, tea, tobacco and others substances that leave a residue on your teeth. The result? A world of difference to your smile. Even if you follow a rigorous oral hygiene routine at home there’s nothing quite like a dentist’s clean.

A dentist can often also recommend a good orthodontist to straighten your teeth if necessary. Dentists can even help improve your smile in situations like missing teeth which can be filled with seamless tooth implants.

5.) To treat existing dental problems and removing any related discomfort

Unfortunately, sometimes we get to the dentist when we’ve already caused some damage to our teeth or gums through poor diet and poor dental hygiene. The good news is that a dentist can help identify common dental diseases, such as decay and gum disease, which can cause pain and discomfort, and treats them so that you feel better. Treating them promptly also ensures the problem is resolved before it gets any worse, to ultimately help you keep your teeth as healthy and strong as they can be. When caught at the early stages, treatment can be easy and minor so it’s best to treat them as soon as possible because neglect can lead to the development of more major dental damage which can be more unpleasant and more expensive to treat.

6.) To prevent tooth loss

If oral health is neglected, in the worst case, a tooth can be lost. Regular check-ups can help prevent this from happening.

7.) A good dentist may be able to catch early tooth-signs of other body-wide health problems, helping you nip them in the bud

Some studies suggest that an inspection of the mouth’s bacteria can give clues to the risk of certain diseases including strokes, heart attacks, diabetes and even dementia. By examining your mouth, your dentist may be able to catch these problems to help you treat them before they develop further.

Dental x-rays can sometimes also pick up osteoporosis to enable early treatment.

Oral cancer is another condition that can be spotted by dentists, and the sooner someone spots the warning signs of this, the quicker treatment can begin and the better the chances of successful recovery. An early spotting of signs of oral cancer by a routine visit to the dentist can literally save your life.

8.) To help you maintain good health in general

Some health conditions are linked to poor oral health.

Maintaining good oral health which includes regular visits to the dentist, may reduce your risk of diseases like heart disease. Some studies have suggested a possible link between bacterial gum disease leading to an increased risk of atherosclerosis and heart disease. It has been suggested that the mouth bacteria may affect the body’s functioning within blood vessels.

9.) The more you get used to the dentist, the less the fear of going

For those who are afraid of going to the dentist, the longer they wait, sometimes, the worse the fear gets. If you go more regularly, face your fear, you’re likely to see that it’s not so bad (afterall, it’s only been a short time since your last visit so chances are everything will be ok). The more accustomed you get to hearing good news from the dentist after regular check-ups, the less scary a dentist’s office will seem.

10.) Regular visits with no necessary damage-control are cheaper than a serious visit with serious damage-control later on

Routine treatments and check-ups at the dentist are much cheaper and more pleasant than complex and more serious courses of treatment that may result from years of dental neglect.

How often should I visit the dentist?

Most experts recommend that you should visit the dentist once every six months.

About the Authors
This article has been co-written by Richard Keane and Li-Or. Richard writes for the website dentalimplant.co.uk and does his best to take care of his teeth and gums for future dental and general health.

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When you start seeing pumpkins showing up in unusually copious amounts everywhere, you can safely bet that Halloween is round the corner!

But what’s with all the pumpkins? And how did the whole Halloween pumpkin carving / Jack-o’-lantern tradition start?

Once upon a time it was turnips rather than pumpkins that took center stage on Halloween!

It may be a bit funny to imagine it, but when the vegetable-lantern tradition first started, the vegetable of choice was not the pumpkin but the humble turnip!

And it wasn’t just the turnip that was turned into lanterns either. Swedes (aka rutabagas), beets and even cabbage stems were also used. These vegetables were used because these were commonly found in Ireland and Scotland where the Halloween vegetable-lantern tradition first began.

When Irish immigrants migrated to America in the 1800s (many coming to escape the famous Potato Famine of 1846), they brought with them their Halloween traditions but since turnips were not as prevalent in the United States as they were in Ireland, a new vegetable was used to form the lantern: the pumpkin. Pumpkins were larger and easier to carve as well as being readily available in America. In fact, even before Halloween was brought over to the United States, pumpkins were already the traditional October-time vegetable since they were abundantly seen in farmer’s market stalls around this time of year. After years of being used as the new vegetable-of-choice for Halloween Jack-o’-lanterns, word of the pumpkin’s use for Halloween was popularized in books, poems, artwork and later on also on TV shows, etching its place in history as the official Halloween vegetable.

But why on earth would you want to turn a vegetable into a lantern in the first place?

Why are pumpkins carved and lit on Halloween?

It all has to do with why Halloween is celebrated: Halloween is based on the ancient Celtic/Irish Pagan holiday of Samhain: a holiday marking the end of summer and the beginning of winter. Since the onset of winter is accompanied with the death of greenery and reduced cheery sunshine, this time of year was closely linked to death in general by the Celts. The Celts believed that at Samhain the spirit world and the human world came closer together, increasing the risk of spirits crossing over into the human world and getting up to ghostly mischief.

To help with ghostbusting, the Jack o’lanterns were invented. The idea behind the vegetable lanterns was that the (often scary) faces carved into the vegetables would scare away naughty or evil spirits and ghosts that were believed to get up to all sorts of tricks during Samhain. The lantern’s light also helped to repel the spirits of darkness.

Along a similar theme, in the original Samhain celebrations, bonfires were often lit to ward off the spirits and people dressed up in costumes to confuse the spirits so that they wouldn’t be able to recognize them thus protecting them from being harmed for any personal reasons. Later when Ireland was Christianized (around the 8th century), Samhain became a part of the new Christian holiday called All Hallow’s Eve, or Halloween, and with the passing of time this holiday eventually lost much of its religious bearing to become a popular secular holiday.

Why are Halloween pumpkins called Jack-o’-lanterns?

We’ve established why vegetable lanterns were made and why pumpkins are today carved on Halloween, but where did their name, the “Jack-o’-lantern” come from?

The term “Jack-o’-lantern” was derived from an Irish folktale featuring a character called Jack (also known as Stingy Jack or Drunk Jack). There are several versions of this folktale but this version is my personal favorite:

There was once a poor man called Jack who loved to sit at the pub and drink more than anything else in the world… even though he didn’t really have the money to keep up this habit and had a long overdue pub tab to pay. The pub owner was threatening to cut him off from the bar altogether if his bar tab wasn’t paid soon.

Years passed and eventually, as with all humans, Jack’s time came and he died. But since he wasn’t exactly Heaven material, Jack found himself reunited with the Devil upon his death. The Devil reminded Jack that he made a promise not to take his soul and therefore could not admit him into Hell. Instead Jack was condemned to be a lost soul, forever wandering through the twilight world. Before sending him off on his journey, the Devil gave Jack a little ember from the fires of Hell to light his way through the darkness ahead. Jack stored the ember in a turnip (or a Jack-o’-lantern!) and forevermore traveled through the twilight world with this lamp lighting his way.

Superstitious Celts believed that whenever they saw a spooky-looking light in the darkness with little explanation of its origins, it’s likely to be the ghost of Jack and his Lantern.

It is based on this folktale that turnip lanterns were called Jack-o’-lanterns, and when pumpkins started being used instead of turnips, the term was transferred to pumpkins too. Part of the reason they are lit is so that their light and carved faces repel lost soul ghosts like Jack from bothering them.

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Every time the World Cup or Euro Cup soccer is on, I find myself wondering why the Italian football shirts are blue. Common sense dictates that it should be green, white or red like the flag – so where did blue enter the equation?

This year whilst watching the Euro 2012 final between Italy and Spain, I finally resolved to investigate and here’s what I found:

How the color blue relates to Italy:

The answer all relates to Italy’s history: Did you know that Italy once had a king? In 1861 and up until 1946, Italy was ruled by the House of Savoy (sometimes spelled House of Savoia). Most royal families have their own coat of arms and the Italian royal family was no exception. There were a few versions of their coat of arms, but it’s generally something like this:

It features a shield with a red and white flag of Savoy (where Savoy is a region of Switzerland from which the royal family hailed. You’ll notice that the Savoy flag is quite similar to the Swiss flag). The emblem also features a sky blue border. I have been so far unsuccessful in finding out *why* they chose blue as the color of the border (if you know please let me know in the comments below ). Some say it represents Italy’s blue skies and sea.

Whatever the reason, this blue part of the coat of arms became the official color of the Italian royal family and the color that the nation adopted as the national color of Italy, known as “Azzurro Savoia” or Savoy Blue.

Even though the Italian royal family was overthrown in 1946 and the Savoy coat of arms was taken off the Italian flag, the blue national color stuck and to this day it still features as the national uniform color for Italian teams in various sports including soccer / football, ski and basketball.

The Italian soccer team is even nicknamed the “Azzuri” which means “the blues”.

What happened to the Italian royal family?

If you’re wondering where the Italian royalty disappeared to, they are actually still around and despite losing much of their influence over the country, they have retained some of their titles. There still exists a Duke of Savoy, a Prince of Naples, a Prince of Piedmont and a Duke of Aosta and their titled families.

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