TWO

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 2,1962

YW H I H G N D I YS U D Y E E E R 2 1 8

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WHAT A WELCOME
RAMSAY
PRINTERS
(across from P-Bell)
- . . 119 East Liberty St.
1'
Stationery for Christmas
See our selection of
EATON, CRANE, and WHITE & WYCKOFF PAPERS
plain and decorated designs
in attractive boxes.
We also have an exceptional assortment of
BOXED CHRISTMAS CARDS- }

... and with it Comes

The Daily 's


PAGAN SYMBOLS:
Evergreens Decorate Homes

Battles, Rebellions Occur
On Past 'Days of Peace'

By KAY PAYANT
Decorating our homes with ev-
ergreens at Christmas time is a
custom that has deep pagan roots.
Because they flourish at a time
when other plants are dead or
dormant, evergreens have always
been symbols of life and fertility.
Long before the advent of
Christmas, green branches were
used to decorate homes in winter.
At the Winter Solstice our ancest-
ors used them in rituals to cele-
brate the return of life. Ancient
Romans used laurel and bay dur-
ing the Kalends of January.
Forbidden
At first when this greenery was
used during Christmas, the Church
forbade it, saying it was too pagan
a custom. However, it was deeply
ingrained in the people, and to
this day, homes and churches

abound with greenery at Christ-
mas time.
Holly, ivy and mistletoe have
been perennial favorites. They
bear fruit in winter, thus height-
ening the idea of life and endur-
ance. Tradition has it that holly
is masculine and ivy is feminine.
Mistletoe has perhaps the old-
est origin of all Christmas plants.
It was held sacred by the Celtic
Druids and the Norsemen as being
a holy plant with strange powers.
It also is the Golden Bough spok-
en of in classical legend.
In ancient Scandinavia it was a
plant of peace. Under its protect-
ing boughs many enemies were
reconciled. It was used as a cure-
all in folk medicine, a good luck
charm, an antidote to poison, and
protection against witchcraft.
Mistletoe, unlike other Christ-

mas greenery, has never lost its
heathen quality. Thus it is a rare
church that includes it in its
decorations.
The custom of kissing under the
mistletoe is purely English. It is
found only in countries where the
English have settled. Formerly the
English were a great people for
kissing and although this may be
no longer the case, the mistletoe
is a reflection of an old custom.
Street Decorations
Recently, greens have been
adopted as street decorations.
Shops and public buildings are
decorated with them as neighbors
try to outdo one another in dress-
ing their house fronts.
The habit of adorning front
doors with holly wreaths is an
American one, but now has found
its way to England.

By RICHARD KRAUT
Whether or not it snows, Christ-
mas Day usually turns out to be
one of the quietest of the year.
It would seem that even the
most belligerent national and in-
ternational figures would forget
about world problems on Dec. 25
and settle down to enjoy perhaps
one day of peace and calm.
As logical as this hypothesis
may seem, it simply is not backed
up by the facts: the most belliger-
ent national and international fig-
ures continue to be the most bel-
ligerent national and international
figures, whether it is Christmas
or not.
Alas! Human nature never
changes.
A quick check of American his-
tory will prove that Christmas
is no more peaceful than any other


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day of the year. For example,
when do you think George Wash-
ington (of all people) attacked
the British at Trenton? The Day
of Peace, of course.
Shay's Rebellion
On Christmas Day in 1786, arm-
ed rioters prevented the Supreme
Court from holding session at
Worchester and therefore stopped
the issuing of writs for the col-
lection of debts. Later known as
Shay's Rebellion, this Christmas
festivity hardly contributed to the
calm and joy of the day.
In 1817, Indians attacked the
boat of one Lieutenant Scott.
The boat had been ascending the
Appalachicola River, named after
the mountain range, to deliver
supples to a Florida fort. All were
massacred. The day? Christmas,
of course.
Twenty years later, battles were
still being won and lost on Christ-
mas. In 1837, General Zachary
Taylor defeated the Seminoles at
Okeechobee Swamp. Taylor soon
went on to bigger and better
things, while Okeechobee sunk in-
to obscurity. All attempts to de-
termine its location have failed
miserably.
Temasalitas Tussle
Colonel Doniphan defeated the
Mexicans at Temasalitas on the
east bank of the Rio Grande in
the Battle of El Brazito in 1846.
This time, both Temasalitas and
Colonel Doniphan sunk into ob-
scurity-to the degree that Doni-
phan's first name is not known
and Temasalitas is under at least
60 feet of water. The only sav-
ing grace? It happened on Christ-
mas Day in the morning.
Dec. 25 was also a day that
marked a victory in General Sher-
man's Vicksburg campaign of the
Civil War. Sherman destroyed a
roadway and bridges belonging to
the Vicksburg and Shreveport
Railroad and thereby cut off sup-
plies from Vicksburg. A merry
Christmas was had by all.
Christmas is therefore not always
the jolly, merry time it is often
made out to be. People, it appears,
are just as mean and nasty on
Dec. 25 as they are the other 364
days of the year.
Amnesty Grant
But this isn't quite true either.
When did President Grant give
final amnesty to the South, pard-
oning all concerned in the Civil
War, including Jefferson Davis?
On Christmas Day.
Perhaps Christmas can bring
peace of mind after all.
'U' To Extend
1963 Holiday
Attention students: you'd bet-
ter make good use of this Christ-
mas vacation-it's the last one you
will have for study purposes.
As of next year the University
will begin a transition toward full
year operation-popularly known
as trimester. The fall semester in
1963 will begin the day after Labor
Day and end at Christmas.
No more will you be able to put
off your three term papers till
the carefree days of Christmas
recess. No more will you be able
to cram a semester's work into
those two weeks.
Of course, the scheduling will
carry some consolation. The
Christmas vacation will be a full
three weeks; second semester
won't begin until the middle of
January.

Use Taste
In Buying
Yule Tree
By MARTHA MacNEAL
Christmas trees are like people.
Some are short and fat (oc-
casionally known as Chanukah
bushes), some are tall and thin,
some are scraggy, and some are
full-blown and voluptuous; and
these last are always the most
desired and the most expensive.
They must be treated tenderly
and decorated lavishly, and then
they will provide an aura of beauty
and joy for everyone.
More importantly, however, the
Christmas tree is a tangible sym-
bol of transformation, and in it-
self a thing of bright loveliness.
Don't Wait
Choosing a Christmas tree does
not have to be the grueling process
that it becomes if you wait until
the last few days before Christ-
mas. It can be slow and leisurely
and highly aesthetic, even fun.
If you live in the country, the
best way is to take a family ex-
cursion to a nursery or to a farm
that sells its trees, and choose one
as it is growing. Too often, when
trees are bound up with ropes (as
is usual when they are brought
into the city) you cannot judge
the fullness of their branches and
foliage. The man who sells the
trees will mark it for you, and per-
haps even deliver it when it is
cut.
If, however, you are city-bound,
it is best to judge by species
rather than appearance, if the tree
is not standing free. Scotch pine
and English pine can be almost
guaranteed to be finely shaped
and full, as their needles are long
and project at right angles to the
branch. They tend, on the whole,
to be shorter than hemlock.
Disadvantages
For all the general popularity
of hemlock, it has severe disad-
vantage in comparison to Scotch
and English pine. The needles are
short, so that the tree tends to
be scraggly. It dries rapidly, with
curling of branches and a gentle
rain of falling needles. Decoration
tends to overwhelm its limited
foliage, so that it looks arti-
ficially gaudy.
The fullness of Scotch or Eng-
lish pine, on the other hand, pre-
serves the essential appearance
of a tree, particularly if decora-
tions are subdued, with tiny blink-
ing lights and a bare minimum
of tinsel. These trees also do not
dry up nearly so rapidly as the
hemlocks.
After the holiday, there inevit-
ably comes that day when the
pleas of the children can no longer
be heeded, and the tree must be
taken down. This, however, can
also be a beautiful process.
Funeral
A Christmas tree should die with
as much splendor as possible. Con-
sequently, it should be secured up-
right with cinder blocks in a deep
container, perhaps an old gar-
bage can, and long strands of
rolled paper should be entwined
in its branches. Then it should be
set gloriously afire in darkest
night. The flames may rise more
than a hundred feet, and the
shower of flying sparks is one of
the most magnificent sights of
any season.
Such is the brief glory of a
Christmas tree, but as the eyes
of any child will tell you (and as
you, if you are lucky, may know
yourself), it is worth it.

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