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Pioneer Post
Sandy Union High School,
District No. 2
Norwegian lass anticipates Busy baker creates
United States Christmas
by Orinda Anderson
and Pam Ague
A Norwegian girl, Marit
Skille, is experiencing her
first American Christmas
this year
The cheerful
Scandinavian is a sophomore
at Sandy High.
Marit, from the northern
part of Norway, is visiting
relatives in Redland. She
isn't sure what to expect of
an American Christmas but
she is excited about it.
In
Norway,
children
imagine Santa in his jolly red
suit being pulled by his flying
reindeer Rudolph is not
included in their tradition.
Santa comes down the
chimney and places presents
under the decorated tree but
no stockings are hung by the
fire place.
On Christmas Eve, the
gifts are handed out by the
youngest child and the
bubble of suspense is popped.
Christm as
celebration
lasts about a week, starting
on St
Thomas’s Day,
December
21.
The
housewives bake cakes
especially for St. Thomas on
Christmas Eve The family
spends the week visiting
their relatives A custom is
“ shooting in Christmas,"
which goes back to the an
cient belief that witches
appear on Christmas night.
When young people go
visiting, they creep up to the
house and shoot a gun to
frighten any witches
A traditional meal consists
of boiled fish. “ The boiled
fish tastes terrible, looks
ugly and stinks!” M arit
admits.
The baking and eating of
cookies
is a fa vo rite
tra d itio n a l tre a t of all
Norwegians A Norwegian
Christmas pudding contains
an almond The people say
Oriental guest tells
of holiday traditions
by Julie Gould
What is Christmas like in
Japan? Do the Japanese
believe in Santa Claus'*
These are some of the
questions that were asked of
the Japanese guest staying
w ith
E llie
Hermanson,
journalism teacher at Sandy
High.
Her name is Hisae Matoi,
and she lives in Tokyo.
Coming over here was a
really exciting experience
for her, and the American
celebration of Christmas is
just as exciting.
Most Japanese people do
not believe in the celebration
of Christmas because only
six percent of the 112 million
people
are C hristians.
Instead they celebrate New
Years starting December 25,
the New Year festivities
being just as important as
Christmas is to us.
Before New Year’s Eve,
the people try to clear up all
th e ir debts and clean
everything up, such as their
traditional kimonos to visit
and Japanese dancers.
They have elaborate meals
with lots of food, but they
don’t decorate their houses
as we do.
“ The Christmas lights and
trees are very beautiful,”
Miss Matoi observed.
When children get off for
two weeks vacation from
school, they enjoy skiing in
the snowy areas of Japan.
Although Tokyo rarely gets
snow, the island of Hokkaido
and northern Honshu get
plenty. People load up in
trains and go there from all
over to ski the sparkling hills
of N ikko and Sapporo.
Ice skating is also very
popular in Japan, and there
are ice rinks for skating all
year around.
Children in Japan par
ticularly love the snow as
children in America do. They
have snowball fights, build
snowmen and slide on the
that the person who gets it in
his portion w ill be the next to
be married
The older generation en
joys telling their experiences
with Santa Claus to the
young They keep the young
wide-eyed with belief that
Santa is only waist high and
runs joyfully through the
fields in his bright red suit.
While running through the
fields, he stops to eat food left
out for him.
M arit is living with her
cousin, Ruth Hodges, in
Redland. She w ill be here
until next summer.
Italian relates
v
O O llC lH V
C U S tO m
by Connie Swinford
“ Christmas in Italy isn’t
much
d iffe re n t
than
Christmas here,” Walter
L azza rin i, AFS student,
believes.
Unlike many European
countries, Italy doesn’t have
any set traditions, according
to the amiable young man.
They got shopping and ex
change presents between
fam ily and friends.
The greatest tradition is
connected with the Christ
mas day meal. They serve a
special cake from Verona,
Italy, which is very light and
sweet They also have a big
dinner with champaign.
In Italy, school vacation
lasts from Dec. 23 to Jan. 4,
but Jan. 5 is very important
to Italian children because
La Befana, a kind of aged
fairy queen, comes down the
chimney with gifts for the
children on the eve of
Epiphany, Jan. 6. Children
listen eagerly for the bell she
is supposed to ring.
During Christmas vacation
from Sandy High, 'W alter
plans to visit an AFS fam ily
on the coast and attend an
AFS meeting Dec. 29 He
would also like to go skiing, if
he has the time.
For Christmas, Walter is
getting himself a stereo, but
he doesn't believe that
Christmas is a good time to
go shopping for yourself He
also is getting some new
clothes, the kind that they
don’t sell in Italy. He would
like to go to Hawaii, but has
planned it for later on in the
spring.
by Scott M cLellan and
M ark Cissna
Instead of having a green
thumb, Jo Hlavka, senior,
has sticky fingers! She
makes cakes as a hobby in
her spare time.
About four years ago, Jo
sent away for a cake making
kit that cost 35 cents, ad
vertised on the back of a
C and H sugar package.
Since then she has taken a
class at a church in Sandy
and a year of classes in
Portland.
The cheerful young lady
has made around 200 cakes
all together For decorating
her cakes, she has a set of
different-sized tubes, around
40 colors for tinting frostings
and about 50 various sized
cake pans. The bedroom she
shares w ith the fa m ily
freezer is tightly packed with
all this equipment.
Jo sells her cakes at $6 for
a regular cake with wedding
cake prices up from that.
Most of the time wedding
cakes are vanilla, but the
customer can have any
flavor he wants.
When she makes a sheet
cake, she usually makes it
from scratch, but when she
makes layer caker, she uses
packaged mixes because
they are less crumbly. Jo
also makes her own frosting
because she thinks packaged
frosting tastes funny.
“ You can’t make enough
money to do it for a living,”
Jo said about her hobby. In
the summer she can make
many cakes, but during the
school year, she has a lot of
homework and not a lot of
spare time.
H er w orst experience
happened when she was
making an anniversary cake
at her summer home near
Tye Valley. The temperature
was so hot that the cake fell
a pa rt and the frostin g
melted There was cake all
over the place, she said.
Decorating the sides with
string work is the hardest,
because if one cracks, they
all crack like a chain reac-
tion. Jo thinks that boys are
b etter at m aking and
decora ting cakes than girls
because they have more
pa hence.
Jo says that cakes pur
chased at stores are a rip-off
for the consumer Most of the
decorations, such as string
work, are pre-made.
Although Jo does not like
cake much anymore because
she has gotten tired of it, her
father still eats it.
JO H LA V K A puts finishing touches on Christmas cake.
Symbols’ origins traced
Symbols of the holiday
season are so important to
Americans, but the origins of
these symbols are often
shrouded in mystery. A little
research provided facts for
the following stories.
Pat Amberg and Bret
Tucker have recently been
hired to teach at Sandy High
School.
Jo urna lism I students
at Sandy High accepted the
challenge of filling two Sandy
Post pages with stories that
they wrote and drawings and
poetry from members of the
student body.
by Kent Reick
Northern Europeans of
D enm ark,
Sweden and
N orw ay once worshiped
trees, and they adopted the
custom of taking trees into
th e ir homes at C hrist
mastime.
The Christmas tree, as we
now know it, was originally a
sign of Yuletide (Christmas
season) that came from
G erm any.
It
was
an
evergreen and thus a sign of
im m ortality.
The first tree in an English
home was used by German
Prince Albert of Sax-Coburg-
Gotha after he married
Queen V ic to ria . P rince
A lb e rt
had
this
fir s t
decorated tree set up at
Windsor Castle in 1841.
C hristm as trees were
brought to the New World by
Hessian soldiers in 1776.
German immigrants carried
the tradition into wider use in
the United States.
by Dawn Tepllck
Three bags of gold may be
what started the Santa Claus
tradition.
During the third century
A.D., Saint Nicholas was
born at Patarce, Lycia in
Asia Minor. When he was old
enough, he was made bishop
of Myra. During this time, he
was credited with many
miracles. He worked won
ders converting nonbelievers
to Christ.
The story that is believed
to have the Santa Claus
tradition in this. A young girl
wanted to be married but
didn’t have the money for a
dowry. So for three nights in
a row, Saint Nicholas threw a
bag of gold into her bedroom
window.
On December 6 he died and
that used to be a special
holiday for European people,
called feast day. Gradually
because of his connection
with children and because
feast day was so close to
Christmas, the tradition was
passed on to Christmas, and
Saint Nicholas took on the
new role of Santa Claus.
by Zina Seal
The
sta r
is
used
everywhere in the world
today as a C hristm as
symbol. It represents the
star in the East that the wise
men followed to Bethleham.
There’s a passage in the
Bible in Matthew 2:1,2 that
says, “ Behold, there came
wise men from the East to
Jerusalem, Saying, Where is
he that is born King of the
Jews: for we have seen his
star in the East, and are
come to worship him ."
by Karen Woods
“ Silent Night,” “ The First
Noel,” “ Deck the Halls,” and
“ Jingle Bells.” Christmas
just wouldn’t be Christmas
without it’s own special
music.
C hristm as music firs t
started as hymns sung in
Latin by priests in the fifth
century A.D.
Carols came later, in the
1400’s. People in the Middle
Ages began to act out parts of
the nativity, and their songs
played an important part in
the telling of the story.
The work“ carol” means a
traditional song of a joyful
nature, usually associated
with a religious or seasonal
festival.
“ 0 Come, A ll Ye Faithful,”
or "Adeste Fideles" is one of
the
oldest
and
most
traditional Christmas carols.
It was originally in Latin and
was translated by Frederick
Oakley. The author of the
original version is unknown.
A n o th e r
e s p e c ia lly
traditional carol, “ Silent
Night,”
was written on
Christmas Eve, 1818, by
Joseph Mohr, a parish priest
in Okerdorf, Austria. Franz
Gruber composed the music
on that same night, and the
complete song was sung at
the Midnight Mass
by Rita Carpenter
The tradition of burning a
yule log came from the Norse
and
Anglo-Saxons who
burned a huge oak log once a
year to honor Thor, the god of
thunder. After the Norse
became Christians, they
made a yule log an important
part of their Christmas
ceremonies.
The Christmas word that
the Scandinavians adopted is
yule, meaning Christmas. In
Lithuania, the word for
Christmas actually means
log evening. It became
important in England to keep
an unbumed part of the log to
light the next year’s yule log.
by Marc Daniel
C hristm as
lig h ts
at
Christmas represent Jesus
Christ as the Light of the
World. People all over the
world use lights in different
ways to celebrate Christmas.
M a rtin
L uth er
was
perhaps the first man to use
lights on a Christmas tree.
People in Ireland put a
candle in their window to
light the way for the Christ
Child on Christmas Eve,
In the Netherlands, young
men in colorful costumes
carry a star, or actually a
lantern containing many
candles, as they walk
through the streets singing
Christmas carols.
In the U.S., many churches
hold candlelight services on
Christmas Eve.
by Neville Loftis
Mistletoe is a plant that
grows as a parasite on the
trunks and branches of
various trees around the
world.
It grows most often on
apple trees, but may grow on
other trees such as lime,
h a w th o rn e ,
syca m o re ,
poplar, locust, fir, and oc
casionally oak.
Mistletoe is an evergreen
with thickly clustered leaves,
and it has tiny yellow flowers
that bloom in February and
March.
Hundreds of years ago,
Europeans used mistletoe as
a ceremonial plant. Many
think
the customs of
mistletoe at Christmas came
from this practice.
Many years ago in Scan
dinavia
m istletoe
was
considered the plant of
• peace. If enemies met under
it, they declared a truce for
the day. This could be the
origin of the popular custom
of kissing whoever stands
under a sprig of mistletoe.
Historians say the Druids,
or ancient priests of the
Celtics cut mistletoe and
gave it to people for charms.
New teachersfill
recent vacancies
by Bob Johns
New teacher, Pat Amberg
replaces Margaret Trachsel
who went to Scio as prin
cipal.
Miss Amberg, who taught
in Iowa, Kansas and Oregon
in the past, now teaches
speech, freshman English,
American literature and
Bible literature here in
Sandy.
She teaches only two-thirds
of a day because she wants to
have some free time to work
on her doctoral thesis. The
thesis is on the welfare of
children in the U S. during
the Hoover administration.
Miss Amberg got her
education at Iowa University
and Kansas State University
where she m ajored in
history
Miss Amberg comes to
Sandy with 12 years of
teaching experience. Her
hobbies are photography,
swimming, and investments
She says she likes living in
Oregon because of the good
variety of scenery.
by Nanette Fleischman
B ritt Tucker was added to
the mathematics department
to fill in for Chris Hanson
who recently quit.
Tucker
is
presently
teaching math and computer
programing He has been
teaching for five years. He
taught eighth grade math
and English in Cincinnati,
Ohio. He also taught at an all
girls school, instructing in 12
different classes but mostly
history.
Tucker was teaching at
San Diego until Measure 13
passed in California which
put him out of a job. One of
his friends in San Diego knew
P rin c ip a l W illia m Mac-
Fa riane and had heard Mr.
MacFarlane talking about
needing another teacher; so
Tucker applied for the job
and got it.
He earned his bachelor's at
Calwestem University in San
Diego and his master's at the
University of Cincinnati.
Altogether he has attended
college for six years He is
presently thinking about
going back to college
getting his doctorate.
The last four months
before coming to Sandy.
Tucker worked on an
avocado ranch that he and
his brother own.
The ta ll, dark-haired
young man has traveled
around the world a great
deal, and he attended college
in England for awhile He
likes to golf, backpack and
play
frisbee, basketball,
racketball and many other
sports