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Vera Ikon

Dec 10 2003, 08:11 PM

Does anyone know of some ghostly tales related to the Christmas season? Yes, October is the usual month for strange goings-on, but human tragedy pays no attention to the calendar.

Of course, there's the classic Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", with the 4 spirits (yes, 4...don't forget ol' Jacob Marley!). But what about real hauntings related to Christmas? The nearest I can think of was a sad story that happened about 5 years ago, in a small town not far from where I live. About a week before Christmas, there was a terrible housefire in a rural neighborhood, and the mother and her 4 children died. The father escaped; he said he'd left the house right after the fire started to get help. There was a huge outpouring of grief and support from the community, and a radio station ever raised money for the guy.

WELL, wouldn't you know that the husband started the fire after having a fight with his wife!

The truth came out after Christmas, and last I knew, he was still in prison. The house's remains were torn down, but I'm not sure about a haunting on the property. It sure seems likely to me, all things considered!

algenon_iii

Dec 11 2003, 10:52 AM

Remember kids - a ghost isn't just for Christmas

Seriously though, I'm sure there must be stories related to Christmas, I admittedly don't know of any

Trouble is unless you know the history behind a story it's tricky to tell if it's related to Christmas (like that fire you just mentioned).

AnimangaBloodThorn

Dec 11 2003, 10:15 PM

QUOTE

The Christmas Space Message
by Tom Slemen

This story allegedly took place in the late 1960s, and the witnesses were three level-headed and highly intelligent men; they were 3 astronauts...
Most of the civilised world became one large international family in July 1969 when Man first landed on the Moon. A million people watched Apollo 11 blast off from Cape Canaveral, and television and radio networks across the globe beamed the momentous news of the first lunar landing to a staggering billion people. But before the first manned landing on the Moon, other less-known spaceships had to make dangerous dummy-runs to the Earth's nearest neighbour. The ship that took 3 astronauts where no men had gone before was Apollo 8, which was shot at the Moon in December 1968, carrying Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders. The Russian nation looked on with burning jealousy as the United States made its first attempt at sending 3 men around the Moon and back on a dangerous trajectory which had a real risk of ending in tragedy.

Apollo 8 made it to the Moon in what was turning out to be a textbook mission. It was calculated that the spaceship would orbit the Moon on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day before returning to Earth.

The 3 intrepid astronauts made 10 orbits of the Moon over those two festive days. The coloured indicator lights on the control panels of the ship reminded them of the fairy lights on the Christmas trees in their homes back on Earth, where there families were waiting for there safe return. Outside Apollo 8 in the infinite black stillness of space, the stars shone steadily. During the last orbit of the lunar mission, something bizarre took place which was later explained away as a fanciful tale. Apollo 8 swung around the Moon in its final orbit. As the spaceship disappeared behind the Moon's dark side, something eerie took place. As expected, all radio communication with Earth was lost, as radio waves from Earth cannot penetrate the Moon's 21 hundred miles of hard lunar crust. During this hour-long radio blackout, the 3 astronauts listened to the faint static on their radio. The men began to chat about how the mission was going and discussed what had to be done, when suddenly, a strange sound filled the space capsule.

"What the hell is that?" asked one of the astronauts. Jim Lovell, the man who would later travel on the disastrous Apollo 13 mission turned up the radio, because that's where the weird sound was coming from.

"Sounds like - a choir?" said Frank Borman, looking at his spaceborne colleagues with a puzzled expression. And the sound of angelic voices singing some unidentified carol in harmony was spellbinding. No radio emissions from Earth could be responsible, and the astronauts were at a complete loss to explain the sounds. In the eerie silence of the Moon's dark side, most people would have been alarmed by the uncanny voices, but the 3 astronauts were trained to think rationally under the most demanding conditions. What followed next was even more bizarre.

A solemn English-sounding voice said, "Peace on Earth to all mankind." There then followed a series of bulletins which were delivered by the well-spoken stranger on the radio. The voice spoke of China testing a H-bomb, of Israeli commandos fighting Arab soldiers with terrible losses on each side. The voice then gave a series of gloomy reports on the Vietnam War. The mysterious bulletins gradually became fainter and fainter as Apollo 8 emerged from the Moon's shadow. Then something extraordinary took place which was later explained as an optical illusion. The faint voice said, "Merry Christmas Men of Earth."

Astronauts Borman, Lovell and Anders then saw the sun and the Earth rise over the Moon's grim cratered horizon. Four shafts of intense light radiated from the sun in the form of a huge cross. Beneath this cross hung the blue fragile-looking planet Earth. Radio contact with ground control was re-established once more, and the staff at Mission Control said to the astronauts, "Christmas greetings from Earth to Apollo 8."

The three astronauts were suddenly overcome with a terrible feeling of sadness for the world, and the three men could hardly reply to Mission control because they were so choked. With the whole world listening - including the Soviet Union - the astronauts couldn't talk of the strange experience they'd undergone on the Moon's dark side, but when they later returned to their loved ones on Earth they talked about the strange Christmas message they'd received from someone 'out there'. Stranger still, all the events mentioned in the ghostly news bulletin came to pass. China did test out her H-bomb, and the Israelis did battle with the Arabs. All the details about the offensives in Vietnam also took place. Of course, the NASA psychologists explained the whole incident away as stress on the long lunar mission. But those 3 astronauts will never forget that Christmas away from home.

I'm guessing that that's probably fake. But I think that it's really cute...

Cya!

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