Holly Jolly Light Parade in Baraboo, November 22

Wisconsin Native Calendar Highlights

Holiday: Holly Jolly Light Parade in Baraboo, November 22
Bundle up and line the streets of downtown Baraboo to enjoy the dozens of glittering floats, costumed characters and novelty units that make up this holiday parade. Following the parade, children can visit with Santa Claus and have their picture taken.

Mirror Lake State Park: The 2008 Gold Seal Award Winner for Best Prairie Restoration in a Wisconsin State Park / DNR Photo by Paul Zajackowski

A Sauk County state park that features a still lake surrounded by pine and oak woods, sandy prairies and former farm fields that are now rich in native plants is the recipient of this year's award for best prairie restoration.

Heritage Hill State Historical Park: The 2008 Gold Seal Award Winner for Best Interpretive Display in a Wisconsin State Park

A historical park in Green Bay nestled on the banks of the Fox River is the recipient of this year's award for best interpretive display.

Every year, visitors to Wisconsin State Parks and Trails are asked to vote for their favorite park or trail in 10 categories. The votes have been tabulated and the 2008 Gold Seal Awards have been announced. The Gold Seal results were acquired throughout the 2008 summer season using an online survey that was available on the Friends of Wisconsin State Parks website.

PHOTO by Barbara McCann

For more fun and insightful tales of Wisconsin, check out the Dennis McCann blog,

Armistice Day Celebration in New Lisbon, November 11, 1918. Photo reprinted courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society.

This photograph was taken in New Lisbon at the first Armistice Day celebration, November 11, 1918. The symbolic end of World War I, Armistice Day, which was renamed Veterans Day in 1954, commemorates the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front. The soldier in the photo, William Carlson, is presiding over a mock funeral of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Carlson was disabled by the chemical agent mustard gas and lost a lung in France during World War I. His brother, Nels Carlson, was killed the day before Armistice Day.

PHOTO courtesy Department of Natural Resources

Courtesy Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

As temperatures drop and snow flurries begin to fly in November, some Wisconsin wildlife animals begin looking for spots where they can avoid the cold by either hibernating or enter a long winter’s sleep.

State wildlife officials say that there are generally two kinds of winter sleepers: true hibernators and “light sleepers.”

Blue Mound State Park: The 2008 Gold Seal Award Winner for Best Mountain Bike Trails in a Wisconsin State Park / PHOTO by Vicki France

A state park in Dane County is the recipient of this year's award for best mountain bike trails, and it's setting is on the tallest hill in southern Wisconsin.

Every year, visitors to Wisconsin State Parks and Trails are asked to vote for their favorite park or trail in 10 categories. The votes have been tabulated and the 2008 Gold Seal Awards have been announced. The Gold Seal results were acquired throughout the 2008 summer season using an online survey that was available on the Friends of Wisconsin State Parks website.

Dept. of Natural Resources photo

People interested in volunteering to locate timber wolves and other forest carnivores in the coming year and help keep count the elusive animals can learn how to track wolves during a series of upcoming training sessions.

One special training session, to be held Dec. 6-7 near Tomahawk, will be led by a world-renowned tracker.

In Wisconsin wolves are a protected wild animal under state law, and due to court action on Sept. 29 are again an endangered species under federal law.

Amnicon Falls State Park: One of the 2008 Gold Seal Award Winners for Best Water Feature in a Wisconsin State Park

Two state parks in Douglas County share this year's award for best water feature, including one waterfall that is the fourth highest cascade east of the Rocky Mountains.

Every year, visitors to Wisconsin State Parks and Trails are asked to vote for their favorite park or trail in 10 categories. The votes have been tabulated and the 2008 Gold Seal Awards have been announced. The Gold Seal results were acquired throughout the 2008 summer season using an online survey that was available on the Friends of Wisconsin State Parks website.

Children pose in costumes at The Capital Times-RKO Strand Theatre Halloween party in Madison, October 31, 1931. Photo reprinted courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Halloween parties originated in the late 19th century, as the holiday went from a night to scare away ghosts and demons to one about community and neighborhood get-togethers. By the 1920s some communities had parades and citywide parties, but the practice of sending children door to door asking for candy did not begin until the 1930s. Damage and vandalism by youngsters on Halloween night had become so extensive that towns began to encourage children to ask their neighbors for candy to distract them. This is where the term "trick or treat" comes from.