DECK THE HOLIDAY'S

Huendoara Castle   Hunedoara is not a name that frequently pops up in conversations about vampires and especially Dracula.  Few people know that Hunedoara is actually the castle where Vlad the Impaler, the man who gave inspiration to Hollywood's Dracula, was imprisoned during the fifteenth century.    Located in Transylvania, Romania, the castle pretty much stands the way it looked back then during Vlad's time.  The castle is Gotic in style and has both round and square shaped turrets with a red roof, perched over a cliff near the Hungarian border. Vlad the Impaler  Hunedoara, or Hunyadi as it is more properly known, has a rich background in Eastern European history.  Because of its close location to Hungary, at one point it was claimed as part of Hungarian territory when the nation was part of the Austrian-Hungarian empire until the end of World War 1.  As with any other castle, Hunedoara, also contains grand rooms fo...

    Tinku , an Andean tradition, began as a form of ritualistic combat. It is native to the northern region of Potosí in Bolivia. In the language of  Quechua , the word  “tinku”  means encounter. In the language of Aymara it means  “physical attack".  During this ritual, men and women from different communities will meet and begin the festivities by drinking and dancing. The women will then form circles and begin chanting while the men proceed to fight each other; rarely the women will join in the fighting as well. Large tinkus are held in Potosí during the first few weeks of May.     Because of the rhythmic way the men throw their fists at each other, and because they stand in a crouched stance going in circles around each other, a dance was formed. This dance, the Festive Tinku, simulates the traditional combat, bearing a warlike rhythm. The differences between the Andean tradition and the dance are the costumes, ...