Snooping Around

Surely you all know “A Christmas Carol”, the traditional Charles Dickens tale that tells the story of an old man named Ebenezer Scrooge, obsessed only with money and without any sense of holiday, altruism or kindness, and how the visit of three spirits taught him the true meaning of Christmas. Since it’s one of those “must” traditions, I was watching one of the movie transpositions of the novel, and I got an idea. Why not sharing with you some aspects of my past, present and future life, with maybe getting rid of some of my heavy heart? No one has ever thought about this before, and so I present it to you for the first time ever. This is “A Christmas Carol Tag”. You will be visited by three ghosts Jacob Marley Ghost. The first spirit visiting Scrooge is his old business partner Jacob Marley, represented as a corpse who is forever cursed to wander the earth dragging a network of heavy chains, forged during a lifetime of greed and selfishness. The ghost threatens Scrooge...

There’s no way of thinking about Santa Claus without involving magic. A sparkling sleigh towed by flying reindeers in the middle of the night with million s of presents for the good boys and girls of the world. Normal people should be completely drunk or worse to actually see something like that. Well, according to a strange theory , this possibility is not far awa y from the truth. What if I tell you the unlikely source of the story of Santa and his helpers could be hallucinogenic mushrooms. Of course you are now probably wondering how could some perception altering mushrooms be connected with the good old symbol of Christmas? John Rush, an anthropologist and instructor at Sierra College in Rocklin (CA) said: "Santa is a modern counterpart of a shaman, who consumed mind-altering plants and fungi to commune with the spirit world" Therefore the legend of Santa would derive from shamans in the Siberian and Arctic regions who dropped a bag full of hallucinogenic mu...

Surely Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. Life looks a little bit better with snow, lights and songs all over the decorated streets. And of course there’s Santa Claus (also known as Saint Nicholas) bringing joy and presents to all the good girls and boys. But there’s some parts of Europe, like Germany, Austria, and other parts of the Alps region, where naughty children needs to be very careful during the holidays because of a dark, mischievous and grumpy figure hidden in the shadows. This evil spirit is the Krampus, Saint Nicholas counterpart. This creature is an anthropomorphic beast with fangs, fur, and horns. Dark and ancient spirit, Krampus announces his presence with loud bells and terrorizes the kids who have misbehaved during the year. In contrast with Santa giving the good ones gifts and joy, Krampus gives the bad ones whip beatings and nightmares. And if you have been particularly naughty, Krampus will drop you in a sack and whisk you away to his lair in...

Christmas is finally coming. This is my very first Christmas as a blogger, and I'm really happy and excited to be able to talk about this holiday season with you, sharing some interesting facts. Among all others, Christmas holidays are without a doubt my favorites.  A shallow mind might think that I’m saying this only for the huge amount of spare time I have in this period or for out of town trips. Not that I don’t like these things, but what I love the most about it is the atmosphere. And I really believe everybody have ever felt that wonderful sensation you get out in the streets, seeing colorful lights, packages tied up with strings, decorated trees and people intent in last minute shopping ..... and maybe snow falling on your head. I think Christmas can also change the most skeptical mind .... and some of the random facts I propose you today will surely make you believe the same. So, here for you some Random facts about Christmas. 1.  We frequently abbreviate Christ...