Christmas

It is 3 days to Christmas. Are you done buying holiday gifts for your loved ones? I bet, the kids are excited for Santa’s gifts. I remember when I was kid, I get really excited on Christmas Eve because I thought Santa would give me gifts until my grandma blew it, she told me that there was no Santaclaus at all - it was my father. I was so upset upon learning this fact. So, after then, we stopped putting stockings behind our doors. But anyhow, Have you been wondering how and when Christmas stockings and gifts started? Well, here is the story behind this Christmas tradition. In 17 centuries ago in Turkey, a bishop of Myra named Nicholas was known for love of children and benevolence. On every Christmas Eve, he used to secretly and surprisingly give gifts to the children in the town. On Christmas Eve, while he passed by a house, he heard a father and three daughters mourning about their poverty. They used to live abundantly but when their mother died of illness and after losing their money in useless and bad inventions. They moved into a peasant’s cottage, they were discussing on how they were not able to be married because they can’t afford nor provide a dowry which was the traditional thing to do at that time. Knowing the grief and despair, St. Nicholas felt pity on them. He looked in the window and observed that they were sleeping. He threw three small bags of gold in the chimney and landed in the stockings that had been hung over the fireplace to dry. St. Nicholas was caught in the act by their father which whom he begged to keep his secret. Guess what? Their father could not help to keep his mouth from telling the incident. The entire village learned from it days later. The three daughters were able to get married and lived happily. After that, hanging of stockings became a tradition on Christmas Eve. That’s how Christmas stockings started.

Halloween

Are you ready for Halloween? I don't really care for Halloween, it's no big deal to me. Back in the days in P.I. my family observe the "All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day". These are the days after Halloween. I didn't grow up participating on Halloween that much. I was wondering how Halloween got started. So, I researched on the net (Internet has become my library now!) and found out that Halloween originated back more than 2,000 years. The Europe's Celtic people celebrated their New Year's Day on November 1, called Samhain (SAH-win). The night before Samhain, people thought spirits, Fairies, demons, and other creatures were to walk the Earth as they traveled to the afterlife. They sacrificed animals to the gods by gathering around bonfires. And they wore animal skin costumes and wearing masks to confuse spirits, perhaps to avoid being possessed. Moreover, the Celts costumed as spirits are believed to have gone from house to house engaging in silly acts in exchange for food and drink, which is the "trick-or-treating" now.

Then, Samhain was later adopted by Catholic for pagan holidays. And In the seventh century Pope Boniface IV decreed November 1 All Saints' Day, or All Hallows' Day. The night before Samhain continued to be observed with bonfires, costumes, and parades, under a new name: All Hallows' Eve—later "Halloween."

The Dancing House

Have you heard of The Dancing House? Does this house actually dance? Of course not! The Dancing House is the nickname of Nationale-Nederlanden building in downtown Prague, Czech Republic It was designed by Croatian-born Czech architect Vlado Milunić in co-operation with Canadian architect Frank Gehry on a vacant riverfront plot. This design was very controversial since it is non-traditional. On the roof, you will see the French restaurant with magnificent views of the city.

photo grabbed from the net

An online beauty contest for nuns

An Italian priest is organizing an online beauty pageant for nuns. His reason is to expose nun’s beauty within the Catholic Church and to fight the belief that nuns are old and stern. The contest is called, The "Miss Sister 2008" and will start in September on Rev. Antonio Rungi blog. All nuns from around the world are welcome to join in this contest. This contest creates visibility for nuns around the world. However, the visitors to his site will have a month to vote for the nun they consider a . A profile will include information about their life, vocation and photos. And it is up to the nuns to choose whether to pose with the customary veil or with their heads uncovered. The said contest doesn’t involve bathing suits. He hopes that this contest will be successfully. This sounds ridiculous to me, but it is quite interesting. Let’s see what’s going to happen next month.

A man with over 200 flag pins on his head

In Beijing, China-- Wen Shengchu sought to welcome Olympic visitors from around the world to China to see Olympics. He strong-willed to set up over 200 miniature flagpoles on his head. Oh, gosh! That’s a lot of pins. They are attached to acupuncture pins as the news said. However, the flags represent contending nations and his hope for world peace. The crowning glory is a needle-shaped like the Olympic torch that glides precisely into his brow.

source: The Reuters

A baby born at 37,000 feet

I saw this news at msnbc. A premature baby was born in the airplane, Korean Airlines Flight yesterday. It happened when the plane was flying somewhere in Canada going to New York. The Mother was Filipina. The baby was delivered by his father who is a trained medical worker and a Korean surgeon who happened to be onboard the flight from the Philippines to New York. Jacel, the Filipina mother of the baby was 7 months pregnant and did not expect that she would labor on that day. Baby Jadan stabilized at a New York hospital after the plane landed, and was transported to Lourdes Medical Center.

The biggest Shopping Center in the world

The world's largest shopping mall is South China Mall. It was opened in 2005 and has an area of 7.1 million. It still suffers from lack of retailers. Much of the retail space remains empty with 99.2 percent of the store vacated. Many business analysts say that the mall is so far largely unoccupied is the location is in the suburbs of Dongguan in which it is only practical to travel there using a car. The mall is scheduled to close in July of 2008. It is considered as the largest "ghost" mall in the world.

The world's hottest pepper

Bhut Jolokia also known as Naga Jolokia, Ghost Chili, Ghost Pepper, Naga Morich. It is a chili pepper that grows in Bangladesh, northeastern India (Assam, Nagaland, and Manipur), and Sri Lanka. It is Guinness World Records to be the hottest chili in the world. There is no way that I would try this hot pepper.