DECK THE HOLIDAY'S

  Here's another nice find while surfing for holiday ideas.  Wouldn't these be great at a teen Halloween party or even as a nice offering at an adult party.  Brought to you by  www.mattbites.com  .  The black and red play off each other and look so cool together with the actual sticks from a tree.  Good luck and enjoy making these, let me know how they turned out for you. Adam’s Scary  Apples    Full confession: When I was about 4 or 5 years old I was so utterly terrified of Halloween that I once ran from the dinner table to the bedroom where I locked myself inside it for 20 minutes while Trick or Treaters came to the front door of the house. I’m not sure why I did that exactly as I wasn’t normally a timid or shy child; I think my dramatic exit had more to do with the fact that I enjoyed that sense of fright, darkness and mystery that rolls around every October. I like to be scared when I know nothing bad will actually happen.    This explains my interest in

Definition Of What a Mask Is- A form of disguise. It is an object that is frequently worn over or in front of the face to hide the identity of a person and by its own features to establish another being. This essential characteristic of hiding and revealing personalities or moods is common to all masks. As cultural objects they have been used throughout the world in all periods since the Stone Age and have been as varied in appearance as in their use and symbolism. General Characteristics    Masks have been designed in innumerable varieties, from the simplest of crude “false faces” held by a handle to complete head coverings with ingenious movable parts and hidden faces. Mask makers have shown great resourcefulness in selecting and combining available materials. Among the substances utilized are woods, metals, shells, fibers, ivory, clay, horn, stone, feathers, leather, furs, paper, cloth, and corn husks. Surface treatments have ranged from rugged simplicity to intricate

   Where else would you find one of the most  haunted places  in the world?  L'Agulhas, the last little village situated at the southern most tip of the African continent boasts sightings of the phantom ship "The Flying Dutchman" that has inspired poets, novelists and dramatists, including Wagner's opera "Der fliengende Hollander" and most recently the  Hollywood  block-buster "Pirates of the Caribbean".     All based on stories retold by fearful seafarers as far back as the first half of the seventeenth century, who have had the misfortune to encounter her blood red sails and ghostly rigging, captained by the Devil's advocate Van der Decken, who lashed himself to the ship's wheel during a howling gale, ignoring his petrified crew's please to ride out the storm and give up his obsession to round the Cape of Storms. Rigging was stripped from the ship's masts, sails lost and the decks became slippery with the incessant crashi

Japan     In Japan  O-Bon festival  celebrates the memory of the dead relatives. Food and water is placed in front of photos of the dead. Bonfires and lanterns light the spirits' path back to earth.    O-Bon  celebrated by some people from July 13-15 and others from August 13-15, O-Bon gets its name from the Sanskrit word for "to hang upside down." It refers to a legend about a Buddhist monk who, deep in meditation, was able to "see" his long-dead mother hanging upside down in the Buddhist equivalent of hell. This was her punishment for having eaten meat during her lifetime - a Buddhist taboo - and refusing to repent of it. The monk was holy enough to go to hell and buy his mother's passage to Nirvana with some of his own excess goodness.    On the first day of O-Bon, people decorate their loved ones' graves with fruit, cakes, and lanterns. On the second day, spirit altars or as they are referred to  tamadana , are assembled at ho