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University Daily Kansan
Tuesday, Dec. 11, 1962
TAU SIGMA DANCERS-Jody Zirul, Prairie Village freshman, and Walter Bgoya, Tanganyika sophomore, limber up. Tau Sigma will present performances tonight and tomorrow night from 8 to 9:30 at Central Junior High School in Lawrence.
MOSCOW — (UPI) — An American visitor to Moscow taking a casual look around him on Dec. 25th would never guess the Russians were not celebrating Christmas.
There's even an old gent who bears a striking resemblance to Santa Claus.
EUT THERE'S nothing Yuletide about it. All the flurry of gift buying, the decorations, the fir trees and the festive air which in the West are part of Christmas are meant in the Soviet Union for the Observance of New Year's Day.
Christmas has not been observed officially in the Soviet Union since the Communists came to power in 1917 with the policy of atheism.
But, for the devout Russian Orthodox Church and other Christian faithful Christmas is observed — not on Dec. 25 but on Jan. 8 because of differences in the Russian calendar.
Soviet Christmas Comes on Jan. 8
Soviet holiday gaiety revolves around New Year's Day, which along with May Day and Nov. 7th are the biggest holidays of the year.
BEGINNING at midnight the Christian churches are filled with the faithful who wish to celebrate the birth of their Lord. On the eve of Jan. 8 a midnight mass is held at Moscow's only Roman Catholic Church.
Big department stores like GUM and "Detsky Mir" (Children's World) feature gaily decorated windows and fir trees with all the trimmings.
Fir trees are seen throughout
Campus Architecture Mirrors Changing Patterns of Design
By James Alsbrook
A seven-year-old boy sat in his father's car as it rushed down the highway toward Lawrence. Suddenly the lad shouted excitedly, "There are the red roofs, Mother! Look, Daddy, we're getting near KU!"
His parents smiled approvingly for they, KU alumni, were returning to Lawrence for homecoming.
WHEN THIS boy becomes a college student, then a father and later a grandfather, these roofs will serve as a landmark of KU. Plans for campus development, under the direction of Keith Lawton, vice chancellor for operations, are to maintain as much as possible the red roof pattern along the hilltop and on Javawk boulevard.
The roofline is one of the architectural consistencies that increasingly distinguish the KU campus. Another is the use of the Kansas-Indiana limestones on all new buildings on the hilltop and on Jayhawk boulevard. Regardless of other architectural differences, the new and remodeled buildings in this area will probably share these two distinguishing and harmonizing characteristics.
"BECAUSE OFF THE natural topography of our campus," Lawton says, "the new, more contemporary type of buildings constructed in recent years have been placed on the lower southwest area of the campus. That is where the open sites were. With the flat-roofed design, it has been conveniently appropriate that they do not obstruct the view to the red roofs above."
Buildings on the level of those southwest of the center of the campus also are characterized by a unity of their own. Modern in design and as functional as latest approved concepts permit, they are built of blond brick and Crab Orchard stone, with low roofs.
Future buildings located off the hilltop should be constructed within the KU pattern, Lawton said, "to achieve for the whole complex of KU structures a harmonious and pleasing variety of architecture and landscape that will express in physical terms the image and lore of the successful and growing KU."
The evolving pattern of KU architecture is not always obvious to the casual onlooker. Some students have said that the only consistency in KU architecture is its inconsistency, and others have singled out certain buildings, denouncing them as "monstrosities," "travesties upon architecture" and "cruel jokes on the students."
MORE SEASONED observers, however, express quite different opinions. George M. Beal, director of architectural services and professor of architecture, said that in the more than 40 years he has known the campus, the physical plant development has been controlled by "contemporary conceptions of most appropriate design as interpreted when each building was constructed."
Thus, according to Prof. Beal, the visitor could walk down Jayhawk boulevard and get a lesson in recent architectural history, for the varying types of design individualizing each building reflect the most favored think of KU building directors at various stages of campus development.
THE YEARLY GROWTH of student population has required the building of new dormitories on the western side of KU property, and students have engaged in heated arguments whether the buildings should be architecturally similar.
But here again the experience and investigation of KU planners were used. The idea of having one main entrance with only a few auxiliary entrances facilitates the handling of telephone calls and the paging of dormitory residents as well as it
helps KU get more living space for the student.
Similarly designed buildings constructed at nearly the same time lend economy and beauty to the dormitory group which, according to J. J. Wilson, director of dormitories, compares favorably with that in other sections of the nation.
Vice chancellor Lawton said KU's hilltop location could have been either an asset or a liability, depending upon how the developers planned. "Since we do not have a flat and rectangular campus, there was no need for us to follow conventional patterns. Multi-level entrances and unusual patterns of pedestrian traffic resulting from our topography lend themselves to distinctive creations like the muchadmired Kansas Union building."
And the appreciative glances of visitors who flock to KU on Sundays and holidays attest that everything from the pitched red roofs, first seen at a distance, to the campus landscaping — including such features as the campanile, the statue of James W. Green, the Weaver Fountain Courtyard and the Chi Omega Fountain, draws a pleasing measure of favorable attention from a large and diverse group of KU-concerned people.
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Moscow and they are known as New Year or "Yolka" trees although they appear just like Christmas trees as they are known in the West.
THERE IS EVEN a Soviet Santa Claus. He's called Grandfather Frost and, like his counterpart in the West, he hands out toys at parties and large public celebrations such as that at the grand Kremlin Palace for those lucky enough to be invited.
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On New Year's Day, too, presents are distributed and family dinners are held. Moscow hotels and cafes are jammed to capacity with celebrators.
ON DEC. 25, however, Soviet workers will go to their jobs as usual. Often at Christmas there are anti-religious articles in newspapers attacking what Russian Orthodox Church believers feel is one of the highest days of the year.
For foreigners in the Soviet capital who wish to observe Christmas there will be services at embassies. At the American embassy newlyarrived Protestant minister, The Rev. Donald Roberts, will conduct a special service for Protestants, chiefly drawn from the American colony.
THE AMERICAN Embassy, as is its usual custom, will import turkey
and other trimmings so American Embassy personnel can have the usual Christmas fare.
And when Dec. 25 rolls around the odds are very much in favor of white, even if it isn't Christmas in the Soviet Union.
Sports Car Club To Meet Todav
The Jayhawk Sports Car Club will meet at 7:30 p.m. today in the Kansas Union instead of the usual third Tuesday of the month meeting, because of Christmas vacation.
A film called "Biography of a Sports Car" about the new Corvette Sting Ray will be shown.
Man Cites Nudism in Suit
WEST FALM BEACH, Fla. — (UPI)—Nudist John Dawson, criticizing a judge who refused to grant him and his wife a divorce because he disapproved of nudist colonies:
"This is ridiculous. Nudism is an accepted way of life in America."
Steal for Right Foot Only
LONDON — (UPI) — Three men were charged today with stealing six shoes for the right foot last night from a Nottingham section shop.
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