History of Christmas Christmas COUGAR TIMES

COUGAR TIMES
Volume 1, issue
Winchester Community Unit School District #1
December 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg7_uQJI7J8
History of Christmas
Its the most wonderful time of the year, Christmas is both a sacred religious holiday and a
worldwide cultural and commercial phenomenon. Christians celebrate Christmas Day as the anniversary of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Popular customs including exchanging gifts, decorating your
Christmas tree, attending church, sharing meals with family and friends and, waiting for Santa Claus
arrival. December 25 has been a federal holiday in the US since 1870.
In the early 17th century, a wave of religious reform changed the way Christmas was celebrated in Europe. When Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan forces took over England in 1645, they
vowed to rid England of decadence and as part of their effort, cancelled Christmas. Popular demand,
Charles II was restored to the throne and, with him, came the return of the popular holiday. The pilgrims were even more orthodox in their Puritan beliefs than Cromwell. As a result, Christmas was not
a holiday in early America. From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed in
Boston. By contrast, in Jamestown settlement, Captain John Smith reported that Christmas was enjoyed by all and passed without incident. After
the American Revolution, English customs fell out of favor, including
Christmas. In fact it wasn’t declared a federal holiday until June 26,
1870. Have a Merry Christmas!
http://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas
Inside this issue:
Santa
2
Lincoln Museum
2
Cheerleading Competition
2
Food Drive
3
Holiday Play
3
Early Graduates
4
Hanukkah
4
Kristie Clayton
Christmas
Christmas is celebrated many ways throughout the world. Even though Christmas is a celebration for Jesus
Christ’s birth, many non-Christians celebrate it also. A lot of people who celebrate Christmas think it’s just about presents and quality family time. I interviewed a couple of students from the high school to see what they think.
Ryan Thompson, a sophomore at WHS, believes we celebrate Christmas to be around family and friends. To
Ryan Christmas means family, fun, and friends. Ryan celebrates Christmas with his loved ones; they celebrate with
food and presents.
Linsey Alred, a senior at WHS, believes we celebrate Christmas because Jesus’ birthday, and to spend
time with our family. To Linsey Christmas means spending time with loved ones and giving. She celebrates Christmas with her family. They celebrate by putting up the tree, giving presents, and going to her grandmas.
Kymmy Jackson, a freshman at WHS, believes we celebrate Christmas because it’s time for joy and a lot
of family time. Kymmy Christmas means “this is the time for god and when he was born.” She celebrates Christmas with her family. Every Christmas they go look at the Christmas lights and on Christmas Eve they open presents.
—Brooke Bartmann
Santa Claus
Every year in December, stories of a man sliding down chimneys and
flying over cities with his sled and reindeer, delivering gifts to the homes of the
good children. The man we’ve never seen but love so much, Santa Claus. Santa
Claus also known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas or Kris Kringle is a figure
with legendary, historical and folkloric origins, who in many Western cultures, is
said to bring gifts to children on December 24, the night before Christmas. In
some European countries children receive their presents on St. Nicholas' Day,
December 6th. Santa Claus is generally described as a joyful man with a whitebeard and sometimes with glasses. Santa also wears a red coat with a white collar and cuffs, white-cuffed red pants, black leather belt and boots and he carries a
bag full of gifts. Since the 20th century, the 1934 song "Santa Claus Is Coming
to Town", Santa Claus has been believed to make a list of children throughout
the world, categorizing them according to their behavior. He is commonly portrayed as living at the North Pole and saying "ho ho ho" often.
Katelyn Chavez
Abraham Lincoln Museum
The US History class went to the Abraham Lincoln museum with Mrs. Barnett on December
2, in Springfield, IL. Abraham Lincoln our sixteenth president was born on February 12, 1809. He was
a hard worker as a child he also learned how to read by himself when he was twelve.
Lincoln was married to Mary Todd and they had four children, Robert was the oldest, Edward and Willie both died of illness and Thomas died of heart failure at age 18. Lincoln’s profession
was being a lawyer and a politician. He served in the military, his branch was the Illinois militia, Lincoln was a captain from April 21, 1832 to July 10, 1832. He was in the Black Hawk War, Lincoln was
assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865 at Ford’s theatre in Washington D.C.
We visited the Lincoln museum in Springfield. When we were there we saw the bed Abraham
Lincoln died in and then we saw the carriage they rode in. We went to Subway to eat then we left the
museum. We arrived back to the school before 8th hour.
By Dalton Krueger
Cheerleading Competition
I interviewed the cheerleaders coach, Mrs. McLaughlin. The co-coach is Brittany Peterson. She told me that the IHSA started cheerleading as an official sport during the 20052006 school year with the first competition being in January of 2006. The competition for
state is held in Bloomington, Illinois. The sectional level of the competition is held at many
different schools. There are many schools that compete in the small varsity teams. There are
as many as 110 schools in our level. But only 25 of the 110 will compete at state.
The competition will be held Saturdays and Sundays starting the 23 rd of November –December. State is held on the
3rd and 4th of January in Springfield, Illinois. She told me that a cheer competition is where cheer teams put together a routine
and perform it in front of judges who score them. The teams are only allowed 12 cheerleaders on the floor with four backup
players dressed. The music for their routine can only be one minute and thirty seconds but they have to perform for three
minutes.
Page 2
Volume 1, issue 3
FFA Shoe Drive and Fruit Sales
The Winchester FFA is hosting the 2nd annual shoe drive. Rachel Sellars is on the committee and I asked
questions to her about the shoe drive. My first question for her was “Who thought of the idea to do the shoe collection?” Her response was, “Mr. Barnett brought the idea to us last year. He learned it from a meeting and we
ran with it.” Another question I asked her was “What kind of shoes do you need? She said, “Any and all shoes are
accepted.” Then I asked “When are you shipping them?” She said, “The shoe drive ends December 5 th. We will
ship them within the next week after that.” Next I asked where do all the shoes go. Her response was, “Shoes go
to places like Haiti, Kenya, and South American countries.” Next question I asked was why are you doing the
shoe project? She replied, “Our FFA does activities for our Program of Activities. The Shoe Drive is part of our
Community Development. Community Development involves doing activities to help build our community and us.” My final
question to Rachel is how did you get the shoes to the certain places? She said, “We take them to Salem Lutheran in Jacksonville, and they transport them from there.” The shoe drive ends December 5 th hurry up and bring
your shoes.
Also, the FFA members were selling fruit from November 3 rd – November 12th. I said “Joey Baird how
many boxes have you sold?” he said “I sold about 10-11 boxes of fruit.” I ask Mr. Bryan Barnett questions
about how the fruit sales work. The first question I asked him was “How well did you do on fruit sales?” He
said, “2013-632 boxes, 2nd highest total in 9 years & 2014- 542 boxes, 4th highest in 9 years.” The next question
I asked him was “What kind of stuff do you sell?” he said, “Apples, oranges, pineapples, or mixed fruit boxes.”
The next question was “When does it all comes in?” and he said “The 2 nd week of December." My final question was “How do the
students sell the fruit?” he replied, “Asking family and friends. It is really sells itself, people always look forward to the holiday
fruit sale.” They do this every year for the holiday season.
Kristie Clayton
The Holiday
Play
Dec. 6th & 7th at WHS was the
annual holiday play, which was “Stoking Stuffers” by Geff Mayer. Stoking Stuffers is a series of holiday
scenes complete with elves, reindeer, and Santa Claus. Our school is honored to have Mrs. Kuchy as the
director, Taylor Lashmett the student director, and Tom Welch the technical director for this year’s play.
Mrs. Kuchy has been working for the drama club for 3 years now. She loves the amount of students whom
involve themselves in the program. Overall, Mrs. Kuchy loves working with the students, watching them
develop confidence, and see the finished product. She thinks it’s very rewarding. In the 3 years Mrs.
Kuchy has been doing this, so far her favorite play would have to be Annie Jr. There are two plays every
year, the holiday play and the musical, Mrs. Kuchy likes the holiday play more because its playful and
isn’t as stressful.
Kayden Savage
Cougar Times
Page 3
Early Graduates
To graduate early you must meet certain qualifications. Those qualifications are; you have to have all twenty-six credits. You
must fill out an early graduation application. Go to the September School Board meeting and ask permission to graduate early, and write a
statement of why you want to graduate early and what your plans are after you graduate. This year there are seven people who are going
to graduate early, six seniors and one junior. Those students are Spencer Newman, Derek Haverfield, Joey Baird, Joseph Hamilton, Danielle
Suhre, Colton Fearneyhough, and Haylee Zachary.
I asked Junior Danielle Suhre some questions about her graduating early. I asked her ‘What made you want to graduate early?’ and her reply was, “I knew I had enough credits and I’m just ready to go straight to college.” Another question
was ‘What do you think are some cons of graduating early?’ and she said, “You miss certain things. Like for me, I miss senior
year, for others, they may miss prom or sports.” In ten years Danielle sees herself working as a physical therapist and starting a
family. “If I could redo any year it would be freshman year, I would worry about school more than friends and relationships,”
Said Danielle. She said her dream college is St. Ambrose University because she got a large scholarship. And she will most likely attend it. When I asked her if she thought high school prepares you for collage, she said, “Sort of, certain things will most likely be totally different.” The most creative excuse that she has used to get out of homework was “I have to work late.” I also asked her what the
strangest advice her parents have told her was and she said, “It doesn’t matter who your friends are, it’ll change in the future.” The last
thing I asked her was ‘do you think you will keep in touch with all of your friends’ and she said, “I don’t know for sure. I might cross some
people’s path from time to time.” “The one memory I am going to remember from my time I had here at WHS is all my experience as an
FFA member!”
I also asked Senior Joseph Hamilton some questions about him graduating early. When I asked him why he wanted to graduate early and he said, “To get out of here.” I asked him what he thought where some pros and cons of graduating
early and his reply was, “There are no cons and the pros are that I’m getting out of here.” “There is no bad thing about being
a senior and be best thing is being on top for a year.” Joseph said when I asked him what he though was the worst and best
thing about being a senior. In ten years he seems himself as a farming. “If I could redo any year it would be my freshman
year” Said Joseph. He doesn’t have a dream college and he won’t be attending one. When I asked him if he though high
school prepares you for collage he said, “No.” I asked him if he though seniors should go to college right after high school and his reply
was “NO, everyone needs a break.” Two things he would tell the underclassmen to do are “don’t be a baby, and party and have fun!” “One
memory that I will remember from going to school at WHS is water ballooning Ms. Fairfield!”
Kaylie Horrer
Hanukkah
I’m doing my paper on Hanukkah. Hanukkah or Chanukah is an eight day Jewish celebration. It started
during the second century B.C. of the second Temple in Jerusalem, where according to legend, Jews had risen up
against their Greek – Syrian oppressors in the Maccabean Revolt. It starts on the 25th of the Jewish month of Kislev, which coincides with late
November-late December on the secular calendar. According to Jewish laws, Hanukkah is one of the less important Jewish holidays. However,
Hanukkah has become much more popular in modern practice because of its proximity to Christmas.
Every year it is customary to commemorate the miracle of the Hanukkah oil by lighting candles on a hanukkiyah. The hanukkiyah is
lit every night for eight nights. Because Hanukkah celebrates the miracle of oil, it is traditional to eat fried foods. Such as latkes and sufganiyot
during the holiday. Latkes are pancakes made out of potatoes and onions, which are fried in oil and then served with applesauce. Sufganiyot
are jelly-filled donuts that are fried and sometimes dusted with confectioners’ sugar before eating.
http://judaism.about.com/od/holidays/a/hanukkah.htm
Cole Hoots