Fairbanks Daily News-Miner from Fairbanks, Alaska • Page 27

Fairbanks Daily Tuetday, December 24, 1968--27 RHONDA SMITH, GRADE 6, CHENA SCHOOL Mac's Union 76 Service 12th A Noble 452-1337 Hawaii Turns On Christmas Spirit (AP)-Eggnog bowls rest next to the pineapple punch. Imported fir trees from the Pacific Northwest decorate homes along with orchids, torch ginger and Hawaiian holly. Turkey and ham share space on dinner tables with sashimi (raw fish), octopus, seaweed, lau lau (butterfish and pork cooked with taro leaves) and poi. Christmas carols, songs and verses may be in English, Hawaiian or pidgin English. In Hawaii, the Christmas season is a blend of the mainland, the Orient and Hawaii--just like the people.

Nearly everyone celebrates Christmas, although an estimated 40 per cent of Hawaii's population is non-Christian. Buddhist families have their Christmas trees and Christmas dinners and exchange gifts just as their Christian neighbors do. Christmas trees are much a part of the Hawaiian Christmas and last year, 115,000 trees were Feeding the Horses Twelfth Night is, in Spanish tradition, the time for giving gifts, and the traditional gift bearers are the Wise Men, who as they journey each year to Bethlehem bring gifts for good children. To feed the Wise Men's horses on their long pilgrimage, Spanish children fill their shoes with straw and set them on balconies or window ledges. shipped to Hawaii.

Late shoppers find it hard to get a tree. Ironically, about 20,000 Norfolk pine trees are shipped to the mainland for Christmas sale. The trees are grown on the Island of Hawaii, but only a few can be found on the local market. Hawaii's tourist industry booms during the holiday. Major hotels in Waikiki and on the Neighbor Islands offer special Christmas parties and activities for their guests.

But, unlike the general community, the hotels emphasize the contrast of Christmas in tropical Hawaii. For the tourists, Santa Claus is likely to arrive in an outrigger canoe paddled to shore by beachboys. He takes part in the entertainment by dancing the hula, complete with grass skirt, and then join? the guests for a Hawaiian luau. While adults attend cocktail parties or fashion shows, teen-agers may take surfing i a sliding--sliding down a wet and grassy slope while sitting on a ti leaf. Many visitors also watch the I a i a i Championships at Makaha Beach, which are usually held during the Christmas vacation period.

Each ethnic group in Hawaii has its own way of saying "Merry Christmas," but most often heard is the a a i i a "Mele Kalikimaka." Town Crier Tells of No Christmas "Hear ye, hear ye! Christmas will not be celebrated. All who observe that abominable day will be severely punished!" An unlikely message for a town crier? Not in the time of Oliver Cromwell! Cromwell and his Puritan Party did indeed consider Christmas an "abominable day," and on December 24, 1653, they succeeded in getting the English Parliament to pass a law making Christmas celebrations of any kind illegal. Imprisonment or exile was the penalty for disobedience. A few days before Christmas, town criers went through the streets warning against holiday celebrations. In England, the ban lasted eight years and even longer in the United States.

The belief that Christmas merry-making was sinful came to the New World with the Pilgrims. New England states outlawed Christmas observances until the middle of the nineteenth century. In Boston, for instance, Christmas was illegal until 1858! LINDA DEWEY, GRAPE 5, UNIVERSITY PARK 160 Highway 452-3112 No I LUCILLE ADAMS, PRIMARY, HUNTER GREEK TANK WELDINC 125 Adak Hamilton Acres Phone 456-5835 MARY ANDERSON, GRADE 5, NORDALE From Earl, Pat and Jeff at Earl E. Cook, Real Estate 524 Third Yule Tree Recalls Light of World The Christmas tree, a universally recognized symbol of the merriest season, radiates the meaning of the Christmas story. For many people, the tree recalls the atmosphere of the holiday home and thus reflects the joyful warmth of the season.

As a religious symbol, the tree with its lights and greenery represents both the story of the garden of Eden and the belief in Christ as the "Light of the world." Although only a century and a half old in America, the custom of the tree has a history that is measured in many centuries. The forerunner of today's Christmas tree was seen in medieval miracle plays, which were produced as religious instruction for the illiterate in an era when illiteracy was Wrapping Gifts When German tradition is followed, unwrapping a Christmas gift can be an amusing but complicated process. One gift may have many consecutive wrappings, each with a different name on it, and the final wrapping may reveal not a gift, but a card telling where the gift is hidden. Other cards in other hiding places lead to a treasure hunt, ending in the discovery of the gift. common and the ability to read a rarity.

A play about Eve's eating the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden was enacted with only one prop on stage, a single, apple-laden flr that became known as the Paradise Tree. The play ended with the promise of the coming of Christ and was usually presented Just before Christmas. At about the same time, people also decorated for the Christmas season with pyramid-shaped frames of light, symbolizing the birth of Christ as the Light of the world. Early efforts to combine the Paradise Tree and the Christmas Light pyramid are recorded in manuscripts from Germany dating to the 16th century, collected by the Hallmark Cards research library. The first tree was thought to have been brought to the United States by Hessian soldiers during the American, Revolution.

These homesick soldiers and other immigrants carried the tree throughout the country. A major setback almost occurred in Cleveland in 1851 when a pastor decorated a tree in his home. His parishioners condemned the tree as pagan, but relented after an explanation of its religious aspects. a i i President Theodore Roosevelt again nearly stamped TODAY'S TREE-Today's Christmas tree-the Paradise Tree and the Christmas Lights pyramid--are shown in this antique Christmas card of the 1880's. The card was published by Opbacher Brothers of Munich, Germany.

out the practice when he banned trees in. the White House. After one of his sons sneaked a Christmas tree in- to the White House, a forester convinced the President that thinning helped forests. The tree that is common today is a combination of the religious elements. The evergreen with glass, plastic or metal balls hanging from it is the Paradise Tree with its apples.

Lights, tinsel, angels, a star on top, ornaments and other "good things" reflect the Christmas Light. White Christinas Now a Tradition For a quarter of a century people have been sentimentally dreaming their way through a 'White Christmas'. It was in 1941, the war years had already begun, when Hollywood released a motion picture entitled: "Holiday Inn." Thestar of i movie was the ever-popular crooner, Bing Crosby. But perhaps the real star of "Holiday Inn" was the song written especially for the movie by Irving Berlin: "White Christmas." Through the ensuing 25 years, over 100 versions of the song have been recorded by almost as many artists, yet "White Christmas" is synonymous with the name of Bing Crosby. The poignant Christmas message that's found in the song has made it popular 'round the world.

It has been translated into Italian, French, Chinese, German, a i Hungarian, Scandinavian languages, several Polynesian tongues and even Swahili. Santa Rules Gift Giving Department More and more, Santa becomes the favored gift-giver in countries around the world, replacing a host of legendary figures who were said to bring gifts at this same season of the year. Gift-giving time, too, is now more likely to be Christmas Eve, although the traditional date in European countries once ranged from St. Nicholas Eve, December 5th, to Epiphany Eve, January 5th. Among the many who set the trend for Santa Claus is the German gift-giver, Kris Kringle, The name is a variation of Christkind--not the- Infant Jesus himself, but his messenger who came to earth, at Christmastime.

Christkind was represented by a child dressed in white robes, with a crown and wings of gold. In Japan, the traditional gift-giver is a native god, Hoteiosho. Represented as a kindly old man with a pack on his back, he is much like visions of the traditional Santa. He is said to have eyes in the back of his head, the better to see whether boys and girls have been naughty or nice. The Yugoslavian trend is to combine Christmas and New Year holidays, and celebrate them together with Grandfather Frost Day.

CRAIG SUTPHIN, GRADE 6, CHENA WOOLWORTH'S 302 Cushman 452-2212 GREG WHISENHANT, GRADE 4, UNIVERSITY PARK ALASKA OVERLAND 456-7742.