Tradewinds, 1975-12-15

              FRADEWIND VOL. 4 NO 9 UTAH TECHNICAL COLLEGE OF PROVO DECEMBER 15, 1975 hrisimas Season Mere... Finally! There is no season of the year that offers more family togetherness than the Christmas season . . . nor are there more reminders greater than the lonli-ness and how poverty struck one is. Parents agonize over the giving of a toy that probably would be destroyed or lost in a matter of days or weeks or put the much needed food or clothes in the house. A smile or warmth. . . . which? If you are among the financially more fortunate, play Santa Claus . . . adopt a family . . . it isn't hard to find one here in Utah, there are so many around us. Adopt a student away from home for Christmas. There's alarge Mexicanfamily in California that on the financial scale would be called poor but they are very rich in the spirit of love and giving. These family members begin the day after New Year's to make or buy things to give out to their needy neighbors in the MexicanBarrios for Christmas. They themselves get little back in terms of gifts or rewards but they are so filled with the joy of giving that they sparkled in their news picture. They were the true meaning of loving their neighbor, young and old. They did it alone without any religious of government agency to aid them. When they were asked what they got out of this they said that just seeing the glow on the face of a child and his parents or an elderly person on ChristmasDay.wasall the reward that they needed. The amount given was well over a $1,000 a year. It may come as a surprise to many that Christ's birthday is not on December 25th ... but rather in the spring of the year. Scientific eveidence based on the story of the Bible, places his fx WISE MEN and shepherds brought gifts to the Christ child and started the tradition of giving . at Christmas time. The wise men brought expensive gifts, the shepherds brought what they The thought, not the price, is what counts. THE gifts had. birth in the same season as his crucifixion. The establishment of December 25th as Christ's birthdate didn't begin until 354 A.D. when Bishop Liberius of Rome ordered the people to celebrate on Dec. 25. This date also was already observed as the Feast of Saturn, celebrating the birth of the sun. The Christians honored Christ instead. . . as the Light of the World. Gradually the Christian world incorporated the pagan worship with the story of Jesus. St. Nicholas served as a Bishop of Myra in Asia Minor in the A.D. 300's. He was famous for his generosity and people came to believe that any surprise gift came from him. The children of the Netherlands chose him as their patron saint and his fame gradually spread to other lands. Santa Claus is distinctly an American symbol but the ideas that are connected to his person are from Europe. Climbingdown the chimney developed from an old Norse legend. The Norse believed that the Goddess Hertha appeared in the fireplace and brought good luck to the home. Santa Claus developed from the Dutch settlers inNewYork. They called St. Nicholas, 'Sinter Klaas". American childreneven-tually called him Santa Claus. In 1823, an American minister and poet, Clement C. Moore, first described Santa's fur trimmed suit, sleigh, and reindeer in his poem A Visit from St. Nicholas," later changed to The Night Before Christmas". The Romans were the first to decorate with evergreens and exchanged them for good luck. The Germans were the first to put decorations on the trees and Martin Luther is givencredit for putting the first lights on the trees as a symbol of the stars above in ,i S1pw-i ' I CHRISTMAS TIME is not only a time for getting gifts. The Give a part of your self in each gift you give. their giory. Exchanging Christmas cards if fairly modern. The first especially printed card for sale appeared in England in 1843. By 1862, they were widely used. Many persons today write X mas instead of Christmas. This form of the name originated in the early Chirstian Church. In' Greek, X" is the first letter of Christ's name. It was frequently used as a holy sumbol .May we remember this as a holy and blessed season. World Book Encyclopedia 1973 VoL3 . V - , , .. . -,, , 1 1 ' ! i i Snow Not Always White Snow consists of water crystals, though sometimes the snowflake is a shapeless woolly tuft or pellet composed of masses of the typical six sided crystals. Probably no other substance crystallizes in such an infinite variety of beautiful forms as water. Some crystals are flat or tabular, some are compound structures, and some are colum-nar needles. Variations of these three classes are endless. Crystals formed in the low clouds are usually large and branching; those from the high clouds are small and compact. The western, south western, and north western segments of great snow storms usually furnish the most perfect forms. Snow comes from supercolored droplets of water held in clouds or in the upper air. These droplets have a temperature far below freezing, but they do not turn to The Christmas Gift In the bieakDecember sunlight, a little boy trudged through the snow. His coat was much too large fnr him Thfl clonunf hnnrr rlMr n 'past his hands, and the tails 4 were so long that he kept trip- t00k-. underneath the coat, his clothes were pauieticauy inadequate to t protect him from the icy wind. JBoth the shirt and the pants were ,thin from many washings and covered with patches. The shirt missed meeting the top of his pants, which ended in tatters just below his knees, by at least ree inches. most important pari is that of snow until a nucleus on which the crystals can form is provided. This nucleus may be a bit of dust or matter such as snow from a higher level. Red, green, blue, and even black snow is occasionally seen in many parts of the world. The colors are due to the presence of innumerable tiny fingi or to dust collected by the snow as it falls through the air. At temperature, below -40 degrees C the water vapor in the air will almost ajways change directly from vapor into ice without condencing into water first. Snowfall is harder to measure than rainfall since a gauge is not a good indicator if the wind is blowing. Also some snow is matted down more than other. Snow must therefore be melted down or weighted to determine its water content. One might have been drawn to feel pity for the boy except for the expression of joy on his face. His eyes twinkled and his lips were pursed in a whistle, as he kept peeking into the sack clutched in his frostbitten hands. Inside the sack were a few handfuls of candy and nuts and a small toy truck and a tiny baby doll which he had been given at school that day. As the boy reached a small grove of trees, he kneeled in the snow, "Dear God" The boy prayed, "Thank you for sending Christmas for my brother and sister, Amen."