December 15, 1999
Phone: 662 915 7404
Fax: 662 915 7486
In this issue:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Do Jingle Bells
Sound Different Around the Globe?
University Community Members Tell of Holidays Back Home
UNIVERSITY, Miss. - You may not know that the French relish their chocolate bûche de Noël or that Queen Elizabeth greets British subjects on the "telly" at 3 p.m. every Dec. 25 - or that Germans fill children's shoes with oranges and nuts on Dec. 6., and the Swedes love their ham, herring and glogg, a spiced wine, at Christmastime. Holidays everywhere are laden with traditions just as tables around the globe are laden with seasonal delicacies decreed by generations of yore. With a large international representation, many members of The University of Mississippi think of the holidays back home. Heidi Kempt-Chew, who earned a doctorate in secondary education from The University of Mississippi, has vivid memories of Christmastime in Germany. "Most families have an advent wreath. It's made of evergreen to represent eternal life and has four candles, one to be lit each Sunday before Christmas day." Once candles have been lit on Sunday, people relight them each day around 4:30 p.m. "People come home from work for their cup of coffee and cake, and then they light the candles. It's very cozy," Kempt-Chew said. She related that children also enjoy the Advent calendar, with each day in the month before Christmas opening to a chocolate or toy treat. Dec. 6 is celebrated as the birthday of Saint Nikolaus in Germany. "The story goes that Nikolaus, a bishop, shared gifts with children in need each winter. Now, on the night of the fifth, children put out their boots to be filled with oranges, nuts and maybe a small toy," she said. Naughty youngsters get a stick delivered from Nikolaus and his servant Ruprecht. "I never got a stick. I was a good girl," Kempt-Chew said. Jörg H. Berkenhagen, from Hanover, Germany, is a post-doctoral research
associate at the Ole Miss-based National Center for Physical Acoustics. He said most Germans enjoy a Christmas goose and knödel (potato balls). And shopping is big on the list of traditions, too. "There's big shopping madness.It's completely crazy," he said. Like a child anywhere, Berkenhagen remembers the excitement of getting his first train set for Christmas when he was 6 or 7. "I still have that one," he said. Andrew "Jammo" Jameson is finishing his Doctorate in sports biomechanics. He is staying in Oxford for the holidays. The Ole Miss student won't make it home near the English town of Newcastle. But this doesn't mean he won't be thinking of the Christmas pudding, sometimes called plum pudding. "It's amazing. It's made with suet (a hard fat) and dried fruit. It's steamed for several hours and flavored with sherry or brandy. When it's done, you pour brandy on it and light it, then serve it with hot custard or brandy sauce," Jameson said. "In England, you find a lot of people are very strict about the 12 days of Christmas. They put up the tree the night before Christmas and that's when the festivities begin. The presents don't appear until Christmas morning. It's all about building up suspense. You try to suss out what's yours, then you go for the gold," he said. Jameson said his family is particularly attentive when the Queen Elizabeth greets the country on television. "My Aunty Belle was the Queen's dresser (a lady in waiting). She was in the palace for the coronation. We have a framed Christmas card from the Queen on the wall," he said. In fact, British royalty helped popularize the Christmas tree when, in 1841, Albert set one up in Windsor Castle for Queen Victoria. In the Jameson home at 3:15 p.m.-just after the Queen spreads her holiday cheer -the family religiously cozies-up for a James Bond movie. Julia Bussade, a Brazilian of Lebanese ancestry who studies at Ole Miss, said Christmas in her family - with all 119 cousins around - is especially festive. She recalled an example of the spirit of Christmas in her tight-knit family. "One year, I asked for a near-impossible gift, and my mother managed to come up with a solution. When I was 14, all I wanted was a motorcycle for Christmas. My mother, who thinks that motorcycles are too dangerous for kids, wrapped some leather gloves made by Honda and wrote me a note, 'Since I can't give you the motorcycle now, here's a pair of gloves for when you grow older.' Two years later, I got a little scooter. I had kept the gloves and they came in handy," she said. Bussade said a holiday challenge was explaining to her 6-year-old nephew why Santa wears a long-sleeved, heavy red velvet suit in Brazil in December, when it's over 100 degrees. She told him it's because Santa comes from the North Pole. "He wasn't very impressed with my explanation," Bussade said. Not all people celebrate Christmas, of course. Julia Stakhnevich, a doctoral candidate in the English department at Ole Miss, is from Russia. "Due to the communist regime for 70 years, our New Year's celebration has become much more widely celebrated than Christmas. On New Year's Eve, everyone is waiting for something magical to happen. "It is considered a family celebration, but a lot of people invite their friends to their homes and have big dinner parties that start around 10 or 11 o'clock 'to see the old year off,'" said Stakhnevich. At dinner, she said, people reflect on how they have lived for the past year and, at midnight, the clock in the Kremlin is shown on television and a champagne toast is enjoyed. Stakhnevich also compared American viewing of the classic Jimmy Stewart film It's a Wonderful Life to Russians watching a romantic comedy The Irony of Fate at the New Year."The film takes place during the New Year's Eve when just about anything can happen. That night is considered to be full of the unexpected, the night of surprises," she said. The tree goes up on Dec. 31 and presents are delivered by Grandpa Frost and his granddaughter Snowgirl. Stakhnevich noted that Christmas is now more widely and openly acknowledged, but it is a reflective holiday when people go to church and pray. Saurabh Sewak, a graduate research assistant in the Ole Miss School of Pharmacy, is a Hindu from India. He said that his religion's Diwali (or "Festival of Lights"), at the beginning of November, parallels Christmas celebrations in some ways. The first day of the four-day festival celebrates the victory of good over evil, Sewak said. In Hindu mitology, a war was waged between a demon and a god on this day; the god won. The holiday also brings family together to celebrate the importance of their relationships. Sewak said that husbands give presents to their wives and brothers give a token to sisters. "It's about the relationships re-evolving, and the men saying, 'I'm here for you if you need me,'" said Sewak.
Part of Diwali is also dedicated to worshiping "tools of trade" in hopes for coming prosperity, the research assistant said. Throughout the fete, Hindus wear their finest vestments, often made of silk and gold brocade. Another similarity to the holiday season here? "The whole country shuts down. And we eat loads and loads of food," Sewak said.
Johnson's Commons Cafeteria's hours of operation for December 1999 through January 2000 are as follows:
December 14 - Closed after serving breakfast and lunch - No dinner
December 15 - January 5 - Closed for holiday break
January 6 - Re-open for all mealsUnion Cafe's (food court) hours of operation from December 1999 through
January 2000 are as follows:December 20, 21 - Open 8:30a.m. - 1:30p.m.
December 22 - January 2 - Closed for holiday break
January 3 - 5 - Open 8:30a.m. - 1:30p.m.
January 6 - Resume regularly scheduled hoursThe Galley (small convenience store located in Student Union operates on
the same hours as the Union Cafe in the food court).
Free Metric Conversion Card for all students who take Brochures/Recruitment Videos when they travel home for the holidays and give them to their home country's Study Abroad Offices or to their High School/Colleges or Advising Center.
It is advised that anyone on a student visa who will be leaving the U.S. and then returning to school, carry a transcript showing that you truly did spend time in the U.S. as a student. If you have an expired visa, you should get an early visa appointment as soon as possible in the Office of International Programs. Most of the U.S. Consulates have announced that visa services will not be available during the first two weeks of January. This is due to potential problems with computer systems when the new year begins. Even if your country is not expected to have problems, the embassy may still be closed because officers will need to travel to the countries which may be experiencing difficulties.
The Office of International Programs will close
at 5:00p.m. on December 21 for the winter break. It will reopen at 8:00a.m.
on January 3, 2000. If you should have an emergency during this time, you
should contact the University Police Department.
The International Student Newsletter is in need of a NAME. We are having a contest to see who can come up with the best name for our newsletter. The student who submits the best newsletter name will receive a special prize. So far our top submissions are PLANET OLE MISS and OLE MISS PLANET. Put your thinking caps on and let's give our newletter a worthy name. Submit your ideas and/or vote on your choice by email to Shannon Sumrall at ssumrall@olemiss.edu
