Merry Christmas From Outer Space

Este Natal vai ser mesmo muito especial! As Férias no Chimico do Museu da Ciência desafiam-te a conhecer UM PAI NATAL EXTRATERRESTRE.

Como seria o Pai Natal se vivesse noutro planeta? E se esse planeta fosse muito quente, ou não tivesse luz, ou estivesse todo coberto de água? E se fosse um imenso areal?

Mais informações.

Se não lhe apetecer passear e preferir viver o Natal num verdadeiro espírito consumista, eis algumas ideias para compras online aqui e aqui.

Por fim, e para aqueles que com toda a lógica continuam a acreditar no Pai Natal, aqui fica uma pequena história sobre o agário-das-moscas, o pequeno cogumelo decorativo alusivo às festividades natalícias, retirada da enciclopédia online:

"Fly agarics appear on Christmas cards and New Year cards from around the world as a symbol of good luck. They also function as Christmas tree decorations, derived from their ectomycorrhizal relationship with coniferous trees. The ethnobotanist Jonathan Ott has suggested that the idea of Santa Claus and tradition of hanging stockings over the fireplace is based centrally upon the fly agaric mushroom itself. With its generally red and white color scheme, he argues that Santa Claus's suit is related to the mushroom. He also draws parallels with flying reindeer: reindeer had been reported to consume the mushroom and prance around in an intoxicated manner afterwards. Until the 20th century the red-and-white Santa suit familiar today was not firmly established, although Saint Nicholas, on which Santa Claus is partly based, was always depicted in red (see also: Origins of Santa Claus). One scholar researching possible links between religious myths and the red mushroom notes, "If Santa Claus had but one eye [like Odin], or if magic urine had been a part of his legend, his connection to the Amanita muscaria would be much easier to believe."
Ott also speculates about Santa's bag of toys. According to historians, ancient Siberia was one of the first civilizations to use fly agaric in practice. The Siberian hut, or yurt, is equipped with a smokehole at the top. Ott suggests that a shaman entered the yurt through the smokehole with a sack of mushrooms in his hand, to be placed in stockings over the fireplace where they could be dried for celebratory use."

Mais informações sobre o outro lado da quadra natalícia podem ser encontradas aqui, aqui, aqui, e já agora aqui também.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

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