University Daily Kansan, December 12, 1984
Page 5
Holidays not limited to Christmas
By DAN HOWELL Staff Reporter
At Christmas time, children flock to department stores to climb on Santa's lap and make their annual demand for the latest popular toys. Their demands vary, unlikely any will ask for a drill.
Yet a dreidel, a kind of spinning top, is a traditional December toy for some children. But then, Christmas isn't the only religious holiday in December.
Dreidels are part of the use
celebration of Hamokah, an eight-
day Jewish festival that falls near
the end of June. It begins
Dec 19 and ends Dec 26.
SEVERAL LOCAL RELIGIOUS leaders said last week that they didn't get upset about the way Christmas dominated this part of the year.
"We just work around it," said Jack Wineorock, who organizes services for the Jewish Community Center, 917 Highland Drive.
Mike Lieberman, a painter for facilities operations, advises the Buddhist Students for Culture & Peace. He said his group found value in Christmas.
"It's significant because everybody in the world is into harmony," he said.
Winerock said Hanukkah, a minor festival, had gained in popularity as a sort of balance against Christmas.
Likewise, the customs of Christmas have grown from other religious observances — usually observances of the agricultural year, the winter solstice and the coming of longer days.
ROMANS ATTENDED parties and exchanged gifts on Saturnalia, which was Dec. 17. They began the new year on Jan. 1 by decorating their houses with greenery and lights and giving gifts to the poor.
Yule cakes and Yule logs, as well as food, gifts and greetings, became popular in German and Celtic midwinter festivals. Those events are attributed to the association of fire and evergreen trees with lasting life.
Daniel Breslauer, associate professor of religious studies, said
Hanukkah had its own history and was unrelated to Christmas except that the two coincided.
"Hannakuk doesn't celebrate the birth of anything or anyone," he said. "It celebrates the rededication of the temple."
BRESLAUER SAID the story of a miracle was central to Jewish understanding of Hanukkah When the temple in Jerusalem was to be rededicated in 164 B.C., a one-day supply of oil for the lamps miraculously lasted eight days.
Winerock, who is also an associate professor of piano, said Jewish homes often displayed one candle for each night of Hanukkah.
"The feeling of the rabbis was that one should accumulate holiness, accumulate light," be said
Hanikkah sometimes is termed the "festival of lights" because of the miracle of the oil.
Breslauer said Hanukkah was among the most joyous of Jewish festivals.
"Among other things, Hanukkah is the only time of year in which it is permitted or encouraged to play games of chance," he said.
PLAYERS GUESS WHERE letters on the four sides of a dreidel will be when it stops spinning, Breslaer said.
He said the dreidel had received
a kind of sanctity because the letters stood for words that meant "great miracle happened three."
Breslauer said Hanukah, like other festivals, had become largely a family celebration after the Jerusalem temple was destroyed by Roman armies in the year 70.
But some parts of the celebration still occur at synagogues, he said. Those include readings from Numbers 7, and from Psalms 113-118, known as the Hallel, or psalms of praise.
He said the custom of Hamukkah gifts arose from the account in Numbers 7 of offerings for the tabernacle in the wilderness.
By MARY CARTER Staff Reporter
Buildings to be closed over holiday vacation
The University of Kansas will try to save money during winter break by closing down some campus buildings and reducing temperatures in others.
Bob Porter, associate director of physical plant maintenance for the department of facilities and operations, said last week that shutdowns in the past two years had brought "substantial savings" to KU.
Temperatures were not reduced last year because of a concern about pipes freezing in extremely frigid weather. Porter said.
Facilities operations personnel will pay special attention during the recess to the buildings in which temperatures are reduced, he said.
"SOME OF THEM have to be watched 24 hours a day." Porter said. "We have to reduce the steam during the cleaning, adjust the blowers in these buildings."
The buildings that will be closed and have their temperatures reduced to 45 degrees during the winter season will be located in Blake Hall, Blake Hall, the Frank K Burge
Union, Stauffer Flint Hall, Fraser Hall, Hoch Audiorium, Lindley Hall and Annex, Lippincott Hall, Marion Hall, Military Science Building and Annex, Nunemaker Center, Twente Relations Center, Wescoe Hall, Relations Center and Wescoe Hall.
Murphy Hall also will be closed, but higher temperatures will be maintained where musical instruments are kept. Temperatures in some rooms in Smith Hall will be maintained for meetings during the break.
BUILDINGS THAT WILL be open with reduced temperatures are Allen Field House, Anshatz Pavilion, Art and Design Building, Bailley Annex Blake Annex, Broadcasting Hall, Carrub-O'Leary Lery, Dyche Hall, Facilities Operations office, Foley Hall, Joliffe Hall, KJKH Learned Hall, Leverett Hall, Robinson Center, Sponser Hall, Robinson Center, Summerfield Hall.
Buildings that will be open and kept at 68 degrees are the Computer Center, Haworth Hall, the Kansas Union, Malott Hall, the Helen Foresmaker Spencer Museum of Art, Snow Hall, Spencer Research Library, Watkins Hospital and Watson Library.
Students make plans early to return home for holidays
By MICHELLE T. JOHNSON Staff Reporter
Even during the first days of the semester some students were planning their December trips home for semester break.
"As soon as people come to campus in August, they start making Thanksgiving vacation and Christmas vacation arrangements," said Beverly Burris, travel consultant for the Kansas Union, travel service in the Kansas Union.
Beren's said that most of the students going home were booking flights on airplanes. Trains take them to the airport, positioned in the places they on she said.
ALTHOUGH THERE has been a steady stream of students making travel arrangements during the semester, the majority of students waited until just before Thanksgiving vacation. Berens said.
Most of the students go to Chicago
and New York City. Beren said, but students have been booking reservations to a variety of places.
Dorothy Pogge, travel agent for Sunflower travel agency, said Sunflower also had an influx of students coming in before Thanksgiving to make arrangements for semester break.
To save money, some students make their own arrangements to get home — such as sharing rides.
POSTING THEIR names and destinations on the ride board in Kansas Union, putting advertisements in the newspaper and catching rides with friends are some methods to find money saving rides home.
"Last year, I didn't have a car so flew home for Christmas. Now I have my own car and I drive home, said Pierre. Louisville, Ky., sophomore.
"I don't mind it at all, especially when you take some friends, it makes it a lot shorter." Pribe said.
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