DECK THE HOLIDAY'S

   Most people watch the Macy's Day parade on Thanksgiving Day.  The famous Thanksgiving Day parade is almost as traditional as turkey and dressing.  More than 40 million viewers watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on television each year.  Many tune in just to see the huge parade balloons.     The history of the Macy's parade balloons is an interesting one.  The very first Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in 1924 didn't have balloons.  Instead, real live animals were borrowed from the Central Park Zoo.    Large balloons weren't used in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.  Macy's Day parade balloons were inflated with air the first year that they were used.  Each year after that, helium was used to fill the huge parade balloons.    The first year that Macy's used helium balloons they released them at the end of the parade for a big finish.  The balloons accidentally burst.  The next year...

Was the first Thanksgiving Day really a day of giving thanks?    What we refer to as the first Thanksgiving would not have been considered a day of giving thanks to the colonists.  A day of thanksgiving to the colonists would have been a day of prayer and fasting.    This event was no such thing.  It wasn't a meal or even a day.  It was a three-day feast that included dancing, singing and games that certainly would not have been part of a religious holiday for the pilgrims.    In the culture of the Wampanoag Indians in attendance, acknowledgment or prayer would have been offered daily for each individual provision, whether meat or plant.  The idea of setting aside a day, or even three, for being thankful wouldn't have fit with their culture either. Who invited all these people?    There were only four married women and five teenage girls at this meal.  Along with the women's four husbands, there were also 8 teenag...

   Alaska has its share of ghosts.  Between the native peoples who inhabit the land and the history of the Gold Rush with its boom towns, notorious lawlessness and violence, it is no wonder that there are more than a few haunted places in the Great White North.    "The Last Frontier" is home to 626,932 people the wandering spirits of the Eklutna, the spirit of many who died during the Yukon Gold Rush and some of the most sacred sites in North America.  So, the next time you're in Alaska, here are some haunted places to visit while you're there.  Eklutna Cemetery Anchorage: Eklutna Village Nation Park    When Russian settlers first arrived in Alaska in 1741, they brought with them the Russian Orthodox religion.  These teachings soon began to blend with the native Eskimo beliefs until the Eklutna religion was born.  The Eklutna believe that when a person passes on, their spirit wanders the earth for forty days and nights in a searc...