DECK THE HOLIDAY'S

    The Fiesta de Santa Marta de Ribarteme , also known as the festival of near death experiences, is a slightly odd festival to say the least. Held in a small Spanish village, that borders Portugal – Las Nieves, Pontevedra, in Galicia and taking place on the 29 th  of July.    The Festival of near death experiences, as its name suggests, is a celebration for those people who have had a near death experience and lived to tell the tale. Saint Marta de Ribarteme is the patron Saint of resurrection. The lucky ‘survivors’ attend the festival in a coffin. It is a good place to go if you want to catch up on tales of different near death experiences.     Even though centered around a fairly morbid theme, the festival itself is a celebration with firework displays and the usually partying that carries on well into the following day.    Thousands of people line the streets of this tiny village. At 10am, the relat...

   Just lurking in the shadows of the neighbor's twinkling Christmas lawn  lights  is the darker side of the Yule tide. One rarely associates the holiday season with the ghouls and specters that cavort during Halloween, but in many traditions around the world Christmas does have a dark side. Aside from the specters in Dickens's  A Christmas Carol , the threat of a lump of coal from Santa, and Chevy Chase's  Holiday Vacation ; American traditions have been insulated from the horror show of Christmas traditions around the world. Here are just some of stories of Christmas evil that will make you glad that shipping Aunt Tillie's sweater is high on your list of holiday stressors. A Tender Norwegian Christmas    Besides eating lye treated cod during the Holiday season, the Norwegians have a number of frightful Christmas traditions. The foremost of these traditions being Julebukk the Christmas goat.  Traditions centering around Jul...