New Year's Eve is a night when everyone expects to see sparkly lights. But many have reported seeing lights in Michigan skies in places where there are no fireworks, candles or other celebratory sources to account for them.

One recent report came to me from the little town of Mount Pleasant, where three young men witnessed a triangular UFO the week after Thanksgiving, 2009. The writer estimated its height at 200 feet, and it was traveling in a straight line "a little bit slower than a small airplane" and featured a large white light on each corner of the triangle which enclosed three smaller red lights. It made a "low humming noise" as it flew slowly overhead. The time was about 8 p.m. and the night was very clear, he said.

Another inexplicable sighting -- this one in broad daylight -- occurred in Sault Ste. Marie on June 28, 2006, when a local building contractor looked out his window around noon and saw a metallic object as big as his own house hovering 1,000 feet above him. His neighbor and mother-in-law also saw it. They reported it to Police Chief Lou Murray, who described the trio as credible witnesses. The man did run for his video camera but found that the batteries went dead when he tried to capture the strange sight.

The two-day Michigan Story Festival offers a complete showcase of the power of storytelling in all its art forms. Michigan Story Festival is one of the only storytelling festivals to integrate the stories of many cultures and traditions. With the exception of the opening and closing performances, there is no charge to experience the magic of Michigan Story Festival events and presentations.

The sharing of stories, from the great myths and legends of the world to the everyday stories of everyday people, allows us to view the human experience and the world in different ways. The Michigan Story Festival, developed as an initiative among Central Michigan University, the Mount Pleasant Community, and the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, will provide a venue for those stories.

The aim of the festival is to bring together those who have found their narrative voices and those who have not. The resulting creative dialogues will take the form of performances, exhibits, workshops, and lectures presented both by those experienced in sharing their stories and those who would like to learn.

Michiganders continue to send their sightings to Weirdmichigan.com. One recent letter read:

Dear Weird Michigan,

A saw something strange coming home from my parents house on Brinton Rd, going south towards Airline Rd. - towards Mt. Pleasant on October 15th, 2006. I feel like I'm crazy just for typing this, but I can't get it to leave my head it was so bizzare! I was driving down Brinton Rd. when I looked up into the sky and saw a very large object flying over the trees. It looked to have bright orange for the top half and white for the bottom, but this was daytime, so I have no idea about flashing lights or if they were there. It was hanging very low, and it was making NO SOUND at all. None, and for something that low and large you should be able to hear... something, right?! That was especially creepy. I sped up as it quickly flew past the road I was on and over the trees. As I looked over though, it was gone. Completely out of site. There was no way it could of been an airplane, hanging that close to trees with no sound and going that fast.

I've never been a believer of UFO's, but after seeing that I might reconsider.

Thanks,
Katie

Michiganders may not know what UFO's are, but they know one when they see one. - Linda Godfrey

Linda S. Godfrey, author of that amazing compendium of the unexplained Weird Michigan. The last Wednesday of every month is a "Weird Wednesday" on Absolute Michigan, so be sure to stay tuned and send us or Linda your Michigan weirdness.

You can explore Michigan UFOs through Weird Michigan's UFO page and also Absolute Michigan keyword UFO, where links include the Michigan chapter of the Mutual UFO Network. For a cool read on Michigan's UFO wave in March of 1966, check out The Great Michigan UFO Chase from the Detroit News Rearview Mirror that looks at the Hillsdale & Dexter incidents. If you would like to spend your entire day watching videos, check out The Crystal Lake Cover-up which alleges to be an account of how the "swamp gas" explanation was coined in Michigan by Air Force UFO expert Dr. J. Allen Hynek and leads into a huge list of related videos.