DECK THE HOLIDAY'S

        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 ...

    It truly does seem that Hollywood has turned to children in a huge effort to make sure people are scared stiff in movie theaters. But this has been done for years. Some of the oldest and scariest films have introduced the ultimate horror via these creepy little guys and dolls. While it may seem that Hollywood is leaning a little too hard on “child labor,” there are some definite reasons why kids seem to scare grown-ups more than other grown-ups. In fact, I’ve got Five Good Examples to substantiate the declaration that Kids are in fact, scarier than adults in horror films.     They Have “The Sixth Sense”.    Because adults are so used to being in complete control of situations, it’s unnerving to think that a child is capable of doing things that adult cannot. Sure, grown-ups may be able to drive, buy alcohol, and see Rated-R films with no problem. But the fact remains that when it comes to more sensitive psychic abiliti...

    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...

   Is it called Memorial Day or Decoration Day? Many people, especially those in the south, ask themselves this question every year. Compounding the confusion is the fact that both celebrations are often held on the same weekend in May. Most of us have participated in Memorial Day celebrations. I've had the experience of participating in several Decoration Day celebrations as well.    According to History.com Memorial Day was first celebrated as Decoration Day. This day first happened officially a few years after the Civil Warn ended on May 30, 1868.    General John Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic is widely credited for the original proclamation. This held great importance even though the Grand Army of the Republic was a group of former soldiers and sailors and not a governmental organization.    President Richard Nixon officially declared Memorial Day to be a federal holiday in 1971. It is held on th...

Cheung Chau Bun Festival or Cheung Chau Da Jiu Festival is a traditional Chinese festival on the island of Cheung Chau in Hong Kong.  Being held annually, and with therefore the most public exposure, it is by far the most famous of such Da Jiu festivals, with Jiu being a Taoist sacrificial ceremony. Such events are held by mostly rural communities in Hong Kong, either annually or at a set interval of years ranging all the way up to once every 60 years ( the same year in the Chinese astrological calendar). Other places that may share the folk custom include Taiwan, Sichuan, Fujian and Guangdong. Cheung Chau's Bun Festival, which draws tens of thousands of local and overseas tourists every year, is staged to mark the Eighth day of the Fourth Moon, in the Chinese calendar (this is usually in early May). It coincides with the local celebration of Buddha's Birthday .      The Cheung Chau Bun Festival began as a fun and exciting ritual for f...

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 dem...

Classic Horror Actors     As a small boy growing up , my family had no problem letting me watch horror movies. As a result, I quickly became desensitized to the genre that scared my friends for many years.   So I grew to enjoy and appreciate classic horror movies. Take a look back at the top five classic horror actors in history. 5. Lon Chaney, Jr.    Quite honestly, I never really thought of Lon Chaney, Jr. as a "horror" actor. I did not find him scary at all and he was talented enough to act in many different genres. Still, the impact he made as an actor in many different classic horror movies cannot be ignored. The son of "The Man of a Thousand Faces," Lon Chaney, Jr. is best remembered for his role in the classic horror movie, "The Wolf Man." 4. Peter Cushing    Classic horror movies experienced a decline in the 1950s. The genre lost the respect of critics and moviegoers in the decade ...