DECK THE HOLIDAY'S

    I want to bring up some alternate methods of thought, that the best way to survive the zombie apocalypse is to stay mobile and not hunker down in a single place. Here's why that it might be true. A Zombie Apocalypse Isn't Siege Warfare     Zombie survivalists like to make a parallel between fending off zombies and medieval forms of siege warfare. At first glance, it's easy to see why they might make that comparison: you have an overwhelming mass of combatants outside your gates, but within a well-stocked stronghold, a small number of defenders can hold off almost indefinitely.     The problem with this idea is that surviving a siege puts faith in the idea that your attackers will eventually get bored or be incapable of feeding or otherwise supplying themselves and will soon stop attacking you.     We can't assume those things of zombies. Zombies don't get bored. Zombies are always hungry, but hunger won't stop them. They're i

    The idea of Christmas caroling brings to mind a jolly band of churchgoers, dressed in shawls and top hats, going door-to-door spreading the spirit of Christmas through hymns. Whether it's "Deck the Halls", "Joy to the World" or "Silent Night", Christmas Carolers have been known to travel on foot, by truck or on horseback. Despite a recent re-examining of caroling's political correctness, including one incident where carolers were banned from marching in a prominent parade in Denver. It remains a popular Christmas tradition. But how exactly did this tradition begin? Who wrote the carols? And why do we feel compelled to sing them on the front porch of a total stranger's home?     The root of the word "carol" lies not in song, but in dance. In Old French, "carole" means "kind of dance". In Latin "choraula" means "a dance to the flute", and in Greek, "choraules&quo

    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, the role of women, and the fact that the da

 This diy comes from  www.twogirlsbeingcrafty.blogspot.com  .  A very cool idea to do with all of that extra scrap booking paper lying around.  Either do one for the winter holidays or for the up coming spring season.  Enjoy! Scrap Paper Tree Centerpiece Tutorial Hi there! I'm Sharon from  Two Girls Being Crafty , and I am so delighted to be today's guest blogger on Everyday Mom Ideas! Thank you so much, Julia, for having us. My co-blogger, Tristin, and I create fun and inexpensive crafts that anyone could do. Our goal is to inspire. So come check us o    Today I would like to share with you all our newest craft. It's a fun and easy DIY Spring scrapbook paper tree. Tristin and I both  love  scrapbook paper. We love the large variety of gorgeous patterns to choose from and the lovely, convenient low prices (so you can indulge when needed). But the funny thing is, neither of us like to scrapbook. We are constantly searching for new and innovative ways to use scrapbook

Dragon Boat Racing History     On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month every year, Chinese communities worldwide celebrate the  Duanwu Jie festival , which commemorates the death of the Chinese patriot/poet  Qu Yuan .     As a rival state conquered his home kingdom, Qu Yuan committed suicide, drowning himself in the Miluo river on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.     His countrymen paddled swiftly out to the middle of the river to retrieve his body, while others threw packets of rice in the water to distract the fish from eating the poet's body.     These two acts, it is said, are the origin of the festival's two main preoccupations - the glutinous rice dumplings known as zongzi, and the dragon boat races. Dragon Boat Racing in Modern Times     Dragon boat racing, despite its roots in ancient tradition, are as exciting a sport as they come. Two or more boats compete against each other in heats spanning distances of about 1 1

   May Day  on May 1st,  is an ancient Northern Hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday;     it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures. Traditional May Day Celebrations    May Day is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day falls exactly half a year from November 1, another cross-quarter day which is also associated with various northern European pagan and the year in the Northern hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations.    As Europe became Christianized, the pagan holidays lost their religious character and either changed into popular secular celebrations, as with May Day, or were merged with or replaced by new Christian holidays as with Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and All Saint's Day. In the twentieth and continuing into the twenty-first century, many neopagans began reconstructing the old traditions and celebrating May D

    Lag BaOmer (Hebrew: ל"ג בעומר‎ ), also known as  Lag LaOmer  amongst Sephardi Jews, is a Jewish holiday celebrated on the thirty-third day of the  Counting of the Omer,  which occurs on the 18th day of Iyar.     Lag BaOmer is Hebrew for  "33rd [day] in the Omer ". The Hebrew letter ל (lamed) or  "L"  represents " 30"  and ג (gimmel) or  "G"  represents  "3".  A vowel sound is conventionally added for pronunciation purposes.     Some Jews call this holiday Lag LaOmer, which means "33rd [day] of the Omer", as opposed to Lag BaOmer,  "33rd [day] in the Omer."  Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson writes in his Likkutei Sichos that the reason why the day should be called Lag BaOmer and not Lag LaOmer is because the Hebrew words Lag BaOmer (ל"ג בעמר), spelled without the  "vav",  have the same gematria as Moshe (משה), and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was mystically a spark of the soul of Moses.

   Chocolate is one of the few foods known to man about which people are actually passionate. We're talking about a wild, burning compassion; one that continues to grow with each delicious bite. For some of us, chocolate s considered to be a necessity of life. Eating chocolate feels good. Some physicians claim that chocolate has something to do with the hormonal imbalance that happens within the body from time to time.    Psychiatrists go so far as to say that chocolate could be a substitute for sex ( especially after you've been married for a while!), particularly when sex isn't available or just not very good (like I said before, after you've been married for a while!!!). There are lots of theories as to why we want or need chocolate, none of which are proven but all of which are interesting to explore. Particularly, if that exploration involved more chocolate.     Most people believe that the Aztec Indians should be credited for the invention of chocola

Masked Halloween Mystery      Decked out for Halloween, a masked woman on roller skates—most likely a random addition to her costume—poses in 1910.     Masquerade parties in the United States were much more common a hundred years ago, when people dressed up not just for Halloween but also for several other holidays, including Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve, according to Lesley Bannatyne, author of the forthcoming book Halloween Nation: Behind the Scenes of America's Fright Night.     Private social clubs often threw Halloween parties for their members, as it was the first major holiday after most people had returned from their summer homes. That said, it's "not like Halloween [in the early 1900s] was an East Coast phenomenon or a high-society phenomenon"—people of all classes donned costumes across the country, even in small Western mining towns, she said.     The "early 20th century also was the beginning of a real democratic movement,