How to play a hot victorian Christmas game without get burned
In the 19th century, a regular Christmas was a little different. For holiday fun, revelers in the United States, Canada and England scared their friends with ghost stories, fortune-telling, and […]
Why one Australian Island celebrates thanksgiving
Norfolk Island is tiny, both in size and population. It is an Australian territory hundreds of miles from the mainland, that hosts fewer than 2,000 inhabitants. It has nice blue […]
Marlborough pie: a luxurious 19th-Century Thanksgiving Pie
Apparently, four kinds of pie were traditional for Thanksgiving: mince, cranberry, pumpkin, and a kind called Marlborough, a glorification of everyday apple, is said. The single-crust pie of stewed apples […]
Bottle trees: a southern tradition with a spiritual past
For believers and ghost stories enthusiasts, the countryside of the American South is haunted and, given the history of the region, it is not hard to understand why. For istance, […]
Saginaw River Lighthouse
Saginaw Bay lies between Michigan’s thumb and the rest of the state’s Lower Peninsula. As Michigan was preparing to become a state, it adopted a constitution in 1835 that encouraged […]
Senate bean soup: since time immemorial on the menu in the U.S. Senate ~
Bean soup has been served in the Senate dining room since time immemorial. However, its origins are as murky as what’s in the bowl. Apparently, around 1904, a bean soup […]
Lt. George Dixon and his lucky gold coin
According to the legend, Lieutenant George Dixon of the 21st Alabama Infantry Regiment was quite a lucky man. At least, at first. Shot at the battle of Shiloh, the ball […]
Election Cake: an American almost forgotten tradition
In the first known cookbook written in the United States, Amelia Simmons’s 1796 American Cookery, you’ll find some recipes that seem familiar like the pumpkin pie or the roast turkey, […]
12 Ways Halloween is celebrated around the globe
In America, people associate Halloween with pumpkins, costumes, candy, and spooky stories or ghosts but, around the world, it could be a little different. The holiday might look slightly different […]
The haunted fields of Andersonville~
When it comes to haunted places in the Deep South of United States, two cities often come to mind: Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia. If you’ve ever been to […]
The season before winter is “Autumn” or “Fall”? :)
The trees are turning, the weather’s getting cooler, laughing pumpkins are back—it’s fall! No, that one English friend tells you: it’s autumn. So how did two completely unalike words come […]
The mystery of Brown Mountain Lights
Near the town of Morganton, North Carolina, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains lies the so-called Brown Mountain. Interestingly, as far back as the early 1900’s, people have […]
Buried Alive: the creepy true legend of Julia Legare
When the golden beams of the suns light shine through the Spanish moss draped trees at the Edisto Island Presbyterian Church, South Carolina, its easy to think that a slow-moving […]
The bedside ghost of Edenton’s Cupola House~
Ghost stories are one of the most fascinating ways to uncover an area’s history, past residents, culture and stories. Nestled on the banks of the Albemarle Sound, in a remote […]
The ghosts of Laurel Grove Cemetery, Savannah
Savannah is the home to some of the richest history in America. It is the oldest city in Georgia and it’s past is full of tangled and tragic events: bearing […]
The ghosts of Cold Harbor battlefield – Mechanicsville, Virginia
For believers and ghost enthusiasts, Most Civil War battlefields are haunted by the restless souls of fallen soldiers. And of all the battles of the war, Cold Harbor located in […]
The (real?) story of the Surrency ghosts – Georgia
One of the most famous ghost story in the history of the South dates back to the early 1870’s in the town of Surrency, a small hamlet located about sixty […]
Buford, Wyoming: Population 1 (and now zero)
Despite its tiny size, the little town of Bufort, Wyoming, has become somewhat of a roadside attraction. It has two claims to fame: the iconic road sign reading “Population 1” […]
Why we owe food regulation to a 19th-Century chemist who poisoned his colleagues
Try to imagine twelve fine young men sat around a fine dinner table with a fine white tablecloth and fine silver settings, with their bow ties rested at their chins […]
The colonial era ghosts that still haunt the streets of Yorktown, the landmark village of the American Revolution
It is said that the town of Yorktown is haunted. From Cornwallis’ Cave on the banks of the York River, to Crawford Road, the town is a magnet for urban […]
July 4: It’s Independence Day for the U.S.
One of the most significant dates in the calendar of the United States, on this day, July 4 1776, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence, […]
Everything you need to know about New Orleans’ Cities of the Dead~
There is no shortage of spooky graveyards in America, especially in the South and, it seems, when it comes to burying the dead no city does it better, and with […]
Captain William Robinson: the keeper who won’t leave his lighthouse in Whitehall – Michigan
White River is nearly twenty-four miles (about 38 km) in length and passes through White Lake before emptying into Lake Michigan. When in 1675, Father Pere Marquette stopped in the […]
The strange stories of Mouth Cemetery – Michigan
Mouth Cemetery in White River Township, Michigan was established in 1851, even though it is believed that an unknown number of men and women were buried in unmarked graves throughout […]
Block Island Southeast Light and Mad Maggie, the ghost who hates men
Block Island Southeast Light is a lighthouse located on Mohegan Bluffs at the southeastern corner of Block Island, Rhode Island. Block Island is surrounded by submerged rocks and sandy shoals […]
The bloody history of Staten Island’s Kreischer Mansion
Sitting just off the Staten Island’s poetically named Arthur Kill Road is Kreischer Mansion, a lovely Victorian home that is said to be one of the most haunted places in […]
Mount Moor Cemetery: a historic African-American graveyard hidden in the parking lot of one of America’s largest malls~
The huge Palisades Mall is among the largest “mega malls” in the United States. The vast concrete complex was opened in 1998, and even though it was described by the […]
Execution Rocks Lighthouse – New York
The solitary Execution Rocks Lighthouse in the Long Island Sound guards the way to mansions which inspired The Great Gatsby, but also hides a macabre history of murder. In the […]
#March 15, 1889: the power of nature blows gunboat diplomacy out of the water in Apia Harbour, Western Samoa
Gunboat diplomacy was at its height in 1889 and on this day, March 15, tension was high with an act of war seemingly imminent. Three American warships (the sloop-of-war USS […]