Fairy tale information

There was a wonderful old man who loved everything. Animals, spiders, insects ... One day while walking through the woods, the nice old man found a cocoon. He decided to take the cocoon home to watch its beautiful transformation from a little cocoon to a beautiful butterfly. He gently placed the cocoon on his kitchen table and watched over it for days. One day the cocoon started to move. It moved frantically! The old man felt sorry for the little butterfly inside. He watched it struggle and struggle! Finally the old man rushed to its aid with a scalpel and gently slit the cocoon so the butterfly could emerge. Just one slice was all it took, and the butterfly broke free from its cocoon only to wilt over in a completely motionless state. The old man did not know what to think. Had he acciden ...

Many, many moons ago, in the beginning of time, the Earth was all water. There was no land. All the animals and the winged-ones lived up in the sky on the clouds. They were waiting for the land to dry, but it would not dry. They would send one animal but he would come back unable to find dry land. Finally they sent the water beetle. The water beetle dove into the water, grabbed a handful of mud at the bottom, brought it up and placed it on top of the water. It started to dry, started to build land. He brought more and more, and still they waited for it to dry. Finally, they sent grandfather buzzard down and the land was almost dry. The buzzard flew close to the land and every time he would flap his mighty wings he would form a mountain and a valley. That's why the Cherokee land has mountai ...

One sunny day a rabbit came out of her hole in the ground to enjoy the fine weather. The day was so nice that she became careless and a fox snuck up behind her and caught her. "I am going to eat you for lunch!" said the fox. "Wait!" replied the rabbit. "Oh yeah? Why should I wait?" "Well, I am just finishing my thesis on 'The Superiority of Rabbits over Foxes and Wolves.'" "Are you crazy? I should eat you right now! Everybody knows that a fox will always win over a rabbit." "Not according to my research. If you like, you can come into my hole and read it for yourself.""You really are crazy!" But since the fox was curious, he went with the rabbit. The fox never came out. A few days later the rabbit was again taking a break from writing and sure enough, a wolf came out of the bushes and was ...

St. Valentine's Day is believed to have originated as an ancient Roman tradition in the third century. The god Lupercus was said to watch over the shepherds and their flocks. Every February the Romans celebrated a feast called Lupercalia to honor Lupercus so that no harm would come to the shepherds and their flocks. Also during Lupercalia, but in honor of the goddess Juno Februata, the names of young women were put into a box and drawn by lot. The boys and girls who were matched would be considered partners for the year. To Christianize the ancient Roman celebration of the Feast of Lupercus, church officials changed the name to St. Valentine's Day. Priests substituted the drawing of girls' names for the names of saints. On St. Valentine's Day the priest placed saints' names into a box. You ...

The Jade Emperor called the animals. "I have made a calendar," he announced. "I will name each of the 12 years in my calendar after one animal. I will choose those animals in a few days." Every animal prayed and whispered silently, "Please choose me." Dragon was the most worried of all. He had shimmering scales and fiery breath, but he despised his brown head. "If only I had a fabulous headdress, the Emperor would choose me," he moaned. Dragon made a deal with his friend Centipede. Centipede would get Rooster's beautiful headdress for Dragon, and Dragon would make Centipede powerful and quick. So Centipede searched for Rooster and his exquisite crown of flaming colors. Centipede found Rooster outside the Emperor's palace. "What do you want?" Rooster crowed. "Please let me borrow your crown ...