Keizertimes., March 15, 2019, Page 34, Image 34

MARCH 15, 2019, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE D5
Leprechauns are one link in a
long chain of mythic tricksters
Leprechauns have been a part of Irish
folklore for at least 700 years, but they’ve been
tricksters from the start.
The fairy-like creatures fi rst appeared
in written stories around the 14th century.
Fergus mac Léti, the king of Ulster, is said to
have fallen asleep on the beach and wakes to
discover that he’s being dragged into the sea
by three leprechauns (the name was spelled
lúchorpáin and meant “small body,” back then).
He captures the tiny men, who grant him three
wishes in exchange for release.
Traditionally, leprechauns like to be alone
by themselves making or mending shoes
while guarding hidden pots of gold at the
end of rainbows. It’s said that you can tell a
leprechaun is near by the tap-tap-tapping of
their small hammer on the soles of shoes. In
Why do leprechauns like
shamrocks so much?
Real rocks are too heavy
the original depictions, leprechauns mostly
wore red, but writings by Irish poet William
Butler Yeats mention “trooping fairies” wearing
green jackets thTbecame the image we use
today.
Leprechauns are tricksters
and they share qualities with
other tricksters of folklore.
The Big Bad Wolf from
little Red Riding Hood is a
trickster fi gure, so is Bugs
Bunny. For the most part,
tricksters cannot be trusted and
they are fond of practical jokes
and fooling the people who seek
to trap them.
Believe it or not, leprechauns are a
protected by European law, too. When a
bunch of countries got together to
form the European Union,
a special section of the
documents forming the
union granted special
status to the 236
leprechauns said to
be alive and well on
Carlington Mountain in
Leinster, Ireland.
- By ERIC A.
HOWALD
Set a leprechaun trap
and 3 wishes could be yours
Leprechauns are hard to fi nd and
even harder to catch, but here are a
few tips to fi nd a lucky friend of your
own.
What you’ll need:
Base – use a bucket, shoe box,
cereal box, anything that can keep
your friend contained.
Bait – shiny gold coins, rainbows,
and shamrocks all make great bait.
I cut a hole in the top of my bucket
and covered it with signs, very clearly
stating there was no gold under the
bucket. I taped the chocolate coins
to the bucket to show the leprechaun
where to go.
One of the best things about
this craft is the freedom to decorate
it yourself. You can customize your
trap anyway you want, chocolate,
rainbows, anything your heart desires.
Don’t forget: If you catch a
leprechaun, let him or her go. If you
do, you get three wishes.
- By LAUREN MURPHY
Hey kids! Be part of No Adults Allowed
Junior
PRESS
Pass
This badge re
cognizes the
boy or girl
below as a d
uly authorize
d member o
the Keizertim
f
es Junior Pre
s
s
C
o
thanks him/h
rps and
er for their d
il
ig
ence in
reporting on
the commun
ity of Keizer.
LYNDON ZA
IT
Publisher, Ke
Z
izertimes
Ste
phanie
SI MON T
ON
BY ERIC A. HOWALD
Of No Adults Allowed
When was the last time
you got curious?
We’re not talking about
the last time you asked your
parents a question, they
gave an answer and you
thought that was enough.
We mean asked-your-
parents-and-your-teacher,
searched-the-internet,
checked-out-a-book-at-the-
library-curious. That’s radical
curiosity and, if you’ve got
it, we want you to be a junior
reporter for No Adults Allowed.
Reporters are also known as
journalists, and when we’re lucky
– and good at our jobs – we get
to do all sorts of cool things. It
starts with curiosity though and,
really, curiosity is just being brave
enough to ask questions we
don’t know the answers to.
Step 1: Be our eyes
and ears in your
school.
Are you working on a cool
art project in school? Is your
class raising money or collecting
donations for a good cause? Do
you have an awesome teacher or
school librarian you want other
people to know about? All of
those are good starting points,
but the subject of your story can
be anything that made you brave
enough to start asking questions.
asking those six questions and
get the information you need to
write a story.
The last way to answer those
questions is through research.
Books are always a good place
to start, but the internet can be a
good resource if you don’t mind
asking an adult for help.
Step 2: Start reporting
Once you have your topic,
you need to focus on answering
six questions: who, why, what,
when, where and how. These
are the questions you’ll need to
answer when you’re writing your
story.
You can answer these
questions in a couple of ways.
The fi rst way is through
observations. If you are reporting
on class pets, spend a couple
minutes a day over a few days
watching what they do. Tell us
what happens and how you think
the world might look through
their eyes.
The second way is through
interviews. Find out who knows
the most about the topic you
are reporting on, then ask if they
have a few minutes to talk. Start
Step 3: Write
After you’ve collected all the
information, you need to write
your article. We don’t care how
you do
it, just make sure you answer
all the questions in the story.
If you need help with this, you
can ask one of our reporters by
sending an email to noadults@
keizertimes.com. You can send
completed stories to that same
address.
What’s in it for you
If you do all that work, you’ll
earn your very own Keizertimes
junior press badge and a special
edition Reporter’s Notepad in
addition to seeing your name
and story in No Adults Allowed.
• More than 85% of all plant
• Earth is the one planet that
• The fi rst recorded sighting of
life on earth is found in the
ocean.
wasn’t named after a Roman
god or goddess.
• The idea for Pac-Man came
to the creator while he was
eating pizza.
• The fi rst pencil was invented
in England in 1565.
the Loch Ness Monster (or as
she’s more commonly known,
“Nessie”) was in 565 A.D.
• Slugs have four noses.