Formally, Advent was a time of personal sacrifice or abstinence much like Lent and it lasted 40 days as well. Essentially it was a second Lent for the year. It very slowly evolved into the 24 day countdown we have today. From personal abstinence to a miniature daily treat in a handy tandy countdown box. 

#BringOnTheQuestions #BOTQs #History #Advent #Christmas #Christian #Countdown

A Wendigo is not some cryptid creature that can just be done away with like modern media likes to portray. Succumbing to the Wendigo spirit or going Wendigo is more of a breakdown of one's spirit due to harsh physical conditions, but again that’s an oversimplification of the idea of the Wendigo. It begins with hallucination and paranoia, then moves into seeing regular food as something non-consumable, and finally seeing human flesh as the only thing that can nourish your hunger. Consuming human flesh is the tipping point from the last vestiges of the human spirit succumbing to the Wendigo spirit taking over. Such acts would result in the Algonquian community immediately destroying the cannibalistic human. This can be attested to the reaction the Native American community had in the case of Swift Runner when he mutilated and devoured his entire family.
 
#BringOnTheQuestions #BOTQs #History #TrueCrime #Wendigo #NativeAmerican #Cannibalism

Why is it called “Black Friday”? Well it’s not because the retailers go from not making profits to suddenly making profits on that day. The insane amount of consumerism certainly helps profits, but in reality the profits were already there. 

When someone started playing with gold standards in 1869 it made lots of days dark for the stock market. However, in the 1960s the day after Thanksgiving evolved into something altogether different. Philadelphia, PA would get overwhelmed by hordes of jolly shoppers putting a strain on the police force and anyone else trying to keep the peace. If you have ever gone Black Friday shopping you would know that wild consumeristic tradition carries on everywhere you go. 

#BringOnTheQuestions #BOTQs #History #BlackFriday #Consumerism #Shopping #Thanksgiving

The early concepts of a Homunculus or Homunculi is absolutely unreal to us as modern people. They were attempting to create a human outside of the body via alchemical razzle dazzle. The whole idea really threw us for a loop for a chunk of the episode. It got weird for awhile. The modern Homunculus makes a bit more sense to us in this day and age, but things are starting to skew into moral quandaries. 

#BringOnTheQuestions #BOTQs #Homunculus #Homunculi #Weird #History #Alchemy #Chemistry

Foennix's oldest sibling wanted to know Are Youngest Siblings Always The Tallest, because Foennix is rapidly catching up to her even though she is over 10 years older than her. Genetics, it turns out, is only a part of the factors that determine overall height in humans. One suprising factor that can effect overall height is the time the parents give to any given offspring. 

#BringOnTheQuestions #BOTQs #Siblings #Sisters #Youngest #Height #Genetics #Heriditary

We're finishing up our impromptu two part episode on Samhain/Halloween. We finished Part 1 by starting to talk about Mischief Night and we started this episode with a positive spin on it. The toilet paper in a tree and throwing eggs was/is more like malicious donations. It's Malicious Donation Night! 

We actually learned those last few days of October and first few days of November can be used to honor the dearly departed. Whether you simply leave an empty chair or set a serving for your departed loved one you're supposed to eat in silence so that the spirits can pass through our plane of existence. 

#bringonthequestions #BOTQs #Samhain #Halloween #History #MischiefNight #Malicous #MaliciousDonations

Samhain that liminal time of year when the veil between the living and the dead spirits thins and we can commune with or attempt to protect ourselves from the otherside. It's a time for the community to thank mother earth for her bountiful harvest to sustain us through the cold that is to come. Oh and there's that whole dressing up and begging for treats door-to-door thing we do to. 

#BringOnTheQuestions #BOTQs #History #Autumn #Fall #Samhain #Halloween #AllHallowsEve #AllSaintsDay

The deeper narrative of what a Skinwalker actually is goes much deeper than just some shape shifter that can transform into an animal. The Navajo or Diné people continue to believe that a medicine man or woman can become a skinwalker if they were to commit an atrocity on their own family or clan. It’s not some myth, it's part of their continued religion that things can and do happen. 

As for Skinwalker Ranch, it might just be a battleground for warring tribes of Native Americans where their respective Skinwalkers roam. Fascinating!

#BringOnTheQuestions #BOTQs #Skinwalker #History #Mythology #Religion #NativeAmerican

Phun with Phobias! Of course we start with a history lesson on what phobia means and where it came from. The Greeks did it again! Then we get into a bunch of rational and irrational fears. As irrational as some sound people do get diagnosed with them, because they actually exhibit fight or flight response to some of these things.

Something spooked the Suttons and their guests so much that they fled their home to alert the local authorities on the night of August 21, 1955 and into the morning of August 22. The simplest explanation is a Great Horned Owl doing owl things, but would an owl really cause so much chaos at one place for hours and hours? Maybe this incident was a bit more out of this world.