2
December 16, 1966
THE GRANTONIAN
Pottvote advocated, to kelp avoid apatku
It is November 9 sometime in the future. A 40-year-old man
gets up in the morning, goes to work, and at 5 p.m. returns directly
home. As he relaxes in his favorite chair, he turns on the television
set to find the only program on is the election returns. He has no
interest in them so he turns off the TV and starts to fix dinner.
This man did not vote. He has no apparent interest in the direc
tion his country is taking or even what his tax money is doing. Is
this man an exception or the rule?
Adult apathy does not suddenly appear in the beginning of the
21st year. It has its beginning in childhood and deeply takes root
in adolescence. High school activities can either alter this or further
it. Which is Grant doing?
Spring student body elections are in the near future. As usual
students will be given pencils, paper and class time to cast their
votes with. Student government will continue as always with stu
dents making no effort to vote. Could this be a seed of apathy?
If student government is supposed to teach us how to become
good and responsible citizens, how is it doing so?
Time could be allowed before and after school, and during all
three lunch periods for students to register. In this way the inter
ested students would take the initiative to vote and this responsi
bility would be taken from the reg room teacher and given to the
students, as it should be.
The actual voting could be handled in the same way, leaving
all the actions up to the individual. If students had to register
before voting, and if they had to vote upon their own initiative
perhaps a smaller number of students would be electing the offi
cers, but they would be the ones who really cared.
Ctifìólmai commercia
Chriölfnai cloaks paradox of todaydó rea (ity.
cliaractériótici b tamed
“Peace on earth., good will toward men...”
A child’s Christmas should be one
of wonder and happiness. It seems
that his eyes should shine and mist at
the simple Christmas tale about a
mother, a father, and a child who was
born in a stable. The world does not
emphasize these.
What are the most common sym
bols of Christmas? Santa Claus and
the Christmas tree, you may answer.
What do these have to do with the
Christmas story? Well, the three wise
men brought gifts . . ., you may say,
but this is a minor part of the Christ
mas tale.
Why then are these symbols so
common? Perhaps it is because they
emphasize the commercial gift-giving
spirit. Santa and the trees can be con
sidered essential to the economy, per
haps, because they provide the incen
tive to buy gifts, and a . decorative
place to put them.
These emphases usually mean more
to a child than the real Christmas
tale. Parents encourage this by build
ing and protecting for as long as pos
sible a mythical “Santa” land, and
some children are terribly hurt when
this belief is shattered.
But later, when as parents, they
look back on their childhood, they
will remember waiting happily for
Santa, and so will continue the cus
tom with their own children. After
all; it is a pleasant illusion.
Should anything be done about the
illusory commercial Christmas?
No. On a legal basis, separation of
church and state could stop action.
\ On a practical basis, not everyone
would agree that the real emphasis
should be placed on Christ.
Many people are not Christians, yet
they celebrate Christmas. They cele
brate the gift-giving aspect because it
seems a pleasant national custom.
Christians should resurrect the real
story among themselves.
In Asia, men are fighting and dying to preserve an ideal. The mass
media broadcast war—cold war, real war, past war, future war. In
our generation there has been no pause in what seems to be a chain
from one war to the next. Peace has become a word rather than a
reality.
Each day, hundreds of people receive threats, obscene mail and harass
ing phone calls. Human beings cannot live with each other in an America
that lacks no physical needs. Brotherhood has become an outmoded term,
a cause that has claimed many deaths and needless suffering.
There seems to be no end to war, neither is there a beginning of
the time when people learn to accept one another. Perhaps it will be
up to our generation to decide whether or not to blow up the world.
Will we be the ones to change society into a life where people can as
sociate with each other regardless of race, religion or ideals?
It is drastic to say whether the fate of the world is in our hands; but it
does present something to think about. Can we decide to take a life need
lessly? Who are we to play God—but wait, even now controversy stirs over
whether God is dead.
Society knows too much. It has been said that a little learning is a dan
gerous thing. With progress in all matters from medicine to movies, from
simple things like children’s toys to complicated computers, mankind in
our age is mastering and has mastered the earth and now sets out to con
trol the universe. We are striving to reach the moon while ignoring poverty
and depression in our own cities.
“God rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay ...”
Rich holiday foods
ringed by legends
adds to popularity
by Gayle Fleming
Richest perhaps of all the holiday tra
ditions can be found on the epicurian’s
list. That is, rich in the sense of spicy,
buttery, fruit-nutty good, and calorie-
filled.
Around these foods are built leg
ends and ceremony, adding to the
drama and popularity of the dishes.
Religious associations are the most
commonplace origin of such traditions,
although some, like our turkey and its
associated trimmings, are results of cir
cumstance.
For several hundred years in feu
dal England the first course in the
Christmas feast was plum pottage or
broth.
This pottage was made from slowly
stewed mutton or beef thickened with
brown bread. When the meat was half
tender, raisins, currants, prunes, cloves,
mace and ginger were added and the dish
simmered for another hour.
Main dish of the feast for these people
was varied. It might have been boar’s
head, “baron of beef,” a haunch of veni
son or even peacock. However, the fit
ting dessert was plum pudding.
Even King Arthur made a plum
pudding:
“A bag of pudding the King did
make
And stuffed it well with plums;
And in it put great lumps of fat
As big as my two thumbs.”
Great ceremony always surrounded
the plum pudding. After the dishes were
removed, it was brought to the table and
lighted, using brandy.
Our sixteenth century ancestors
were very fond of mince pie and
their legend that “whosoever eats
one such pie on each of the twelve
days will have twelve happy months
the coming year,” lives on today.
In the Scandinavian countries and in
certain settlements of America, Christ
mas eve feasting begins with a smorgas
bord including molje.
Molje is a pot of rich liquor in which
the meat is. cooked. Norwegian flat bread
is then dipped in the molje and eaten.
Grot, a rich sweet rice pudding, is the
traditional dessert. The pudding is cov
ered with sugar and the center is scooped
out and filled with butter, forming the
“eye.”
Christmas customs evolved from legends, traditions
by Cynthia Evans
Christmas customs have their roots in
ancient legends, ancestral beliefs and
ceremonies. Today many of these cus
toms play a part of the Christmas season.
As in earlier times, holly, ivy, and
mistletoe are favorite decorations
representing strong life symbols. By
tradition, holly is masculine and ivy
feminine, both being needed to share
the holy blessings they imply.
Mistletoe, the Golden Bough of classi
cal legend, was held sacred by the Celtic
Druids and Norsemen. It was once called
Allheal, the plant of peace, which was
used in folk medicine to cure many ills.
Kissing under the mistletoe is an
English custom, never found in other
countries unless Englishmen have
settled there. Survival in its native
land is thought to be due to the fact
that the English were formerly giv
en to much kissing.
Lighting and decorating trees at
Christmas came originally from Ger
many. How or when it began there is
not known. Legend connects it with Saint
Boniface who came from England in the
eighth century to convert the heathen
Germans.
Later stories say that Martin Lu
ther introduced the custom by using
a candlelit tree to represent the star
ry heavens from which Christ came.
In 1821 the first English Christmas
tree appeared at a children’s party given
by a member of the queen’s court. They
were usually lit by as many tapers as
there are days in the year. For awhile
ordinary people hesitated to follow the
new idea, but within twenty years the
Christmas tree custom was firmly rooted.
Christmas cards, which are now sent
in millions each year, are little more than
a century old. Their immediate prede
cessors were “Christmas pieces” made by
schoolboys at the end of winter term.
More elaborate sheets of the same type
were sometimes used by adults to send
with a gift or letter. Greeting in this way
was uncommon and not until the 1840’s
did the true Christmas card come into
being.
As a result of legend, ancestral customs
and efforts of unknown inventors; people
all over the world celebrate a bright and
decorative Christmas season.
ttlerru Chnitmai from the Qrantonian .Staff
'■fj 4-3
Published weekly by the advanced journalism class of Ulysses S. Grant high school,
room 203, 2245 N.E. 36th Avenue, Portland 12, Oregon. Telephone 288-5975. Printed
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Portland, Oregon 97212. Subscription cost $2.00.
Vol. 69,. No. 14 — December 16, 1966
Editor.................. Barbara Earnest
12th Page Editor .. Gayle Fleming
1st Page Editor ... Gayle Fleming
Reporters . .Cindy Barrett, Bonnie
2nd Page Editor .... Elaine Wolfe
Brown, Mike Cochrane, Casey
3rd Page Editor
Coughlin, Cynthia Evans, Cyn
4th Page Editor .. Cecile O’Rourke
thia Froom, Mary Jane Hulett.
JV/ \|
5th Page Editor
Business Manager ... Marilyn Best
71 Uli 6th Page Editor . .Barbara Earnest
Circulation ................ Lorna Viken
___ 7th Page Editor
Julie Ferry
---- ■= 8th Page Editor. .Marilyn Leonard
9th Page Editor ..... Loma Viken
Photographers.......... Blake Riscoe
10th Page Editor . .Mike Hoffman
Cynthia Evans
Advisor
11th Page Editor
Willard Mohn
Et
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