4 Lifestyles
Thursday, December 6, 1990 The Battalion Lifestyles Editor Kristin North
Holiday traditions
RICHARD S. JAMESAThe Battalion
Theodore Bice of Bryan ponders possible Christmas gifts as he sits on Santa’s lap.
around the world
By TERRI WELCH
Frohlich Weihnachten! Feliz Nav-
idad! God Jul! Merry Christmas!
As familiar Christmas traditions
occur here in the United States,
many other countries will be cele
brating the holidays with their own
customs.
Take, for instance, Germany.
A pre-festival known as St. Nicho
las Day is held for children on Dec.
6, said Wulf Koepke, a professor of
German in the Department of Mod
ern Languages.
“Children place their shoes on the
window sill and hope for St. Nicho
las to leave sweets if they have been
good,” Koepke said.
The real Christmas celebration is
on Dec. 24, Christmas Eve, he said.
Presents are given and parents deco
rate a natural tree with ornaments
and real candles. Children are not
allowed to see the tree until the can
dles are lit, Koepke said.
Dec. 25 and 26 are public holidays
in Germany and families gather to
gether for fun and good food, he
said. Geese, venison and Fish are the
main dishes.
“Germans really live it up for New
Year’s,” Koepke said. “There is lots
of dancing and a number of customs
for good luck.”
Not far from Germany is Norway,
where families gather for dinner as
church bells ring in Christmas at 5
p.m. on Dec. 24, said Kato Hagen, a
senior finance major from a town
close to Oslo, Norway.
“The east coast traditionally
serves a dish that includes meatballs,
pork ribs, sausages, boiled potatoes
and sauerkraut,” Hagen said. “Ho
memade beer is also served.”
Trine Maasoe, a senior English
major from Bergen, Norway said,
“The west coast serves steamed lamb
ribs that have a salty flavor and are
very good.”
Boiled potatoes and lutefisk are
also served, Maasoe said.
Julenisse is the Norwegian version
of Santa Claus, Hagen said. The
children are told he lives in the for
est. He comes at seven or eight in the
evening on Dec. 24 to bring presents
to all nice girls and boys, Hagen said.
Usually an adult will dress up and let
the children see him coming.
“The children must sing to him
before they receive their gifts,” Ha
gen said. This differs from family to
family.
If living on a farm, boys and girls
are told to place a bowl of warm rice
and milk with sugar, cinnamon and
butter on top out in the barn, Hagen
said. A smaller version of Julenisse
will come and eat it in the middle of
the night.
“If he doesn’t get anything, Jule-
Hanukkah celebrates
religiousfreedomfori
During this holiday season
those of the Jewish religion will
be celebrating Hanukkah which
has no relation to Christmas ex
cept that they both occur around
the same time of year.
“Hanukkah marks the liber
ation of the Temple which Assy
ria occupied,” Rabbi Peter Tar-
low of the Hillel Foundation said.
“It concerns the idea of religious
freedom for all people."
The celebration differs from
family to family, but usually in
cludes the menorah, a candela
brum with nine branches, Tarlow
said. Each day of the eight-day
tradition, candles of the menorah
are lit until all are lit at one time.
Gifts are given to the children
during the eight days, and each
family decides how gift-giving
will take place, Tarlow said.
“My cnildren wanted to have
one present on day one and work
up to eight presents on day
eight,” Tarlow said.
The gift giving, which symW
izes the gif t of religious freed®
is usually the reason Hanukkaks
confused with Christmas, he said
Tarlow, a professor in theDt
partrnent of Sociology, said I
liberation took place around 13i
B.C., and Hanukkah has b«i
celebrated since.
nisse will be mean to the animals,” he
said.
As the children grow older and
care less about Julenisse, presents
are put under the Christmas tree
which is very similar to those in the
United States, Hagen said.
Between Christmas and New
Year’s Day, Norwegians celebrate
Julebukk, Maasoe said.
“Julebukk is our version of Hal
loween,” she said. “Families dress up
so they are unrecognizable and go
from house to house singing. Hop
ing to get invited inside.”
Closer to the United States, Mex
ico has a variety of customs that take
place during the holidays.
In a tradition similar to Norway’s
Mexican families go to other houses
in a procession known as “Posada”
which means “shelter,” from about
Dec. 12 to Dec. 23, said Alejandro
Csitkovits, a senior finance major
from Matamoros, Mexico and presi
dent of the Mexican Student Asso
ciation.
“Posada symbolizes when Mary
and Joseph wandered around
looking for a place to stay the night
Christ was born,” Csitkovits said.
“People sing a song that asb:
shelter.”
Usually, each home hasapfc
breaking which is a custom li
comes from the missionaries,
said. They would tell the Men
people that the pihata symbot
the devil and the people had
break it up, he said.
On Dec. 24, families get toget
for their own customs and ate
tional dinner that includes rotar
tos, turrones and a drink km
ronpope, Csitkovits said.
Families also attend milk
mass or “Misa de Gallo'
Christmas Eve, he said.
“When 1 was a little kid.myft;
would have a pihata and a dk
that included turkey, stuffing
sweet potatoes,” Csitkovits said.
As far "fre exchanging p
Christmas is not as big as “ElC;
Reyes Magos” or “The comings’:
three Wise Men,” he said. Tlieo
bration is held Jan. 6, and gifs
given symbolizing the gifts theiti
wise men brought to baby ]«
Csitkovits said.
Many other celebrations als«
take place across the globe this:
day season.
^ Spend the holidays catching up ^
By CINDY McMILLlAN
The abrupt change in tempo from
pulling all-nighters studying for finals
to lying on the couch for a month at
Mom and Dad’s house is enough to give
any college student whiplash.
Don’t be a complete vegetable — this
is a great time to catch up on all those
books you’ve been meaning to read.
The following list includes a few old and
new favorites.
“Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Sa-
ling er. If you’ve never read it, you’ve
really missed out. As the jacket liner
says, each generation has tried to claim
the book as its own — that’s because the
themes are timeless and universal and
vital to young people of any era.
The main character is a young man
trying to rationalize the goals and roles
While Salinger finds a common ground
we can all relate to, I’d wager there are
some observations Thompson makes
that noone can relate to or begin to un
derstand.
But that doesn’t stop them from be
ing entertaining and amusing.
Nothing is off-bounds to Thompson.
Campaign scandals, the wonders of sa
tellite-dish television, looting on the
high seas — this collection of short es
says and journal entries approaches
both the mundane and the fantastic
with hilarious irreverence.
In one memo to his editor of his aspi
rations to the journalist-in-space pro
gram and possible story ideas, he writes:
“If the telephone call doesn’t come from
NASA and they send Cronkite instead
of me into space, then it will be time to
Good books:
“Catcher in the Rye” J.D. Salinger
“Generation of Swine” Hunter S. Thompson
“Texasville,” “The Last Picture Show” Larry McMurtry
in life he’s been expected to accept. He’s
been sent to the right schools, raised in
the right family and dressed in the right
clothes, but he can’t see the point in any
of it. He fails out of one school after an
other not because he is unintelligent,
but because he pities and loathes his
shallow, blindly accepting peers and the
system they have so easily bought into.
One after another, he mentally
pushes each of the people who should
be close to him —parents, teachers,
girlfriends — further away as he draws
within himself.
The struggle to make sense of mod
ern society and find his own place in it is
something I think all young people can
relate to. Sometimes, maybe in the mid
dle of a really tough semester or at a
turning point in our personal lives, we
all stop and ask ourselves “What’s the
point?” While this book doesn’t really
provide any answers, the extent to
which we identify with the character is a
revelation in itself.
“Generation of Swine: Tales of
Shame and Degradation in the ’80s” by
Hunter S. Thompson. Another chroni
cler of modern society, Thompson’s ob
servations are funny, caustic and weird.
deal with my notion of taking Vanessa
Williams to Johannesburg for a casual
Saturday night of dinner and dancing
“Generation of Swine” is labeled
Gonzo Papers Vol. 2, the second such
collection of essays and short entries.
The third, “Songs of the Doomed,” was
released earlier this year and is available
in hardback. “Swine” is the most recent
Thompson novel in paperback.
“The Last Picture Show” and “Tex
asville” by Larry McMurtry. Though
these aren’t McMurtry’s most recent
novels or perhaps his best, they do a
wonderful job of catching Texan local
color with sharp wit and endearing
characters.
“Picture Show” takes place in Thalia,
a small, arid town near Wichita Falls,
about mid-1960s. Duane and Sonny
play for the high school football team,
spending their spare time roughneck
ing, playing pool and going to the pic
ture show Saturday nights with their
girlfriends. The story is one of love and
growing up in a small Texas town,
where the pickings are often slim for
young men and women looking to settle
Video releases ^
After the holidays have been cele
brated, try popping a new release vi
deo cassette in the VCR to take away
some of the out-of-school blues. Many
of the summer’s hottest movies will be
available on video cassette in Decem
ber and January.
Movies which will be released on vi
deo this holiday include:
• Silence Like Glass
• Ghost Dad
• Last Exit to Brooklyn
• Street Hunter
• Torn Apart
• Robocop II
• Gremlins II
• Dick Tracy
• Priceless Beauty
• Hiroshima, Out of the Ashes
• Amityville IV
My Blue Heaven
Young Guns II
Ford Fairlane
Diehard II
1 Navy Seals
1 The Freshman
Dec. 5
Dec. 6
Dec. 6
Dec. 12
Dec. 12
Dec. 13
Dec. 19
Dec. 19
Dec. 20
Dec.26
Dec. 26
Dec. 27
early January
early January
early January
early January
early January
down and nature is apt to deal a dirty
hand.
The strength of McMurtry’s writing is
his characters — they’re real, funny,
proud, lonely, sometimes a little pitiful.
But I feel like I know them, and by the
end of these two books, I feel like I grew
up in Thalia.
“Texasville” catches up to the same
Thalia residents in their middle age,
complete with wives, children, jobs, a
few oil wells and a few unrealized
dreams. The satiric look at Texas’ oil
bust and boom is a funny dimension to
this much longer, much later follow-up.
Be sure and read these books before
seeing the film version of “Texasville”
this Christmas.
Local organizations
give to community
during Christmas
By LISA YOUNG
While most Texas A&M students
are preparing for finals, a few char
itable campus organizations are truly
in the spirit of Christmas. Local
chapters of two national sororities
are sharing their study time with the
community by providing activities
for the children in the Bryan-Col-
lege Station area.
Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, in
conjunction with the Cain Hall Asso
ciation, is sponsoring a Christmas
party Saturday night for Bryan-Col-
lege Station high school students.
“We decided to sponsor a
Christmas party to provide a social
outlet for them,” says Vice President
and Service Chairperson Denise
Nance. The high school students in
the Bryan area do not have many so
cial activities to choose from, Nance
says. “The party will give them the
opportunity to be with people their
own age in a safe, controlled envi
ronment,” she says.
The Cain Hall Association is a
new organization formed this fall for
the residents of Cain Hall and other
male scholarship athletes. Cain Hall
Association’s president, Ramsey
Bradberry, says they want to be posi
tive role models for the community.
“Our main goal is to improve the
relations among the athletes, other
A&M students, and the community,”
Bradberry says. The children will
get an opportunity to meet some of
the athletes that attend school here,
he says.
The party will be Saturday from 9
p.m. to midnight at Camp Junior
High. Admission is f 1 with a canned
food item and $2 without. The
canned goods will be donated to the
Twin City Mission, and proceeds
from both organizations will sponsor
future service projects.
While the Alpha Kappa Alpha so
rority will be aiming its Christmas
spirit at high school students, the
members of Delta Sigma Theta will
oe locusing on the smaller cl#
in the community.
Breakfast with Santa, print'
for children between the ages
and 12, is an annual event spent
by the Delta Sigma Theta sort
The organization will be hold#!
service project Saturday morn:'
the Lincoln Recreation Center
“The children really enjo’
event,” says sorority member'
Boswell. The members cookW
fast for the children and after*;
play games and read to them
well says. “We even have Santa: 1
an appearance at the break!’:
the children will be able to gift'
their lists.”
Pam Sherman, social ad ^
chairperson for the sorority
Breakfast with Santa is a worth*
project. “It gives the childrt
chance to interact with blackct
students,” Sherman says. “It#
makes me feel good that I’m f
something back to the communf
Though most students are if
long before Christmas day, the#
ganizations hope to make a ¥ J
impression on the children if
Bryan-College Station area
Christmas.
Ui
bl
. If Ch
time of y
be the cs
The 1
say, are
depressi
by a lac
bon, loi
f tions.
Peo F
Christrn
!ogy lect
Peopl
they wa
; family,
pressed.
Coun
Noel R
1 look at
Christrn
3 “You
Christrn
! To a
; holiday
1 look a
! Christrn
| realize t
are goir
■ get back
“Thit
for you
• perfect
I ean't sp
get toge
j Ian to
home o
to oth<
! blues.”
Holic
same tii