Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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|& THE MIX Page 8 HT 1 1 » 1 i rn Wednesday, Nov. 30,2005 Celebrate tou/j ♦the^ world Hello, my name is: Amy Fraley, first-year physical education student WHAT DID YOU WANT MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE FOR CHRISTMAS WHEN YOU WERE A CHILD? “A pink bike with streamers coming out of the handlebars.” WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE OF SANTA’S REINDEER, AND WHY? “Blitzen, because he’s last, and I’m always the last referred to in my family.” IF YOU COULD CATCH ANYONE UNDER THE MISTLETOE, WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHY? uereK jeter, Decause nes got good game.” TURKEY OR HAM? “Turkey because it comes with dressing.” WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS CAROL, AND WHY? “‘What Child Is This?’ because it doesn’t sound like a normal Christmas carol.” WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS MOVIE, AND WHY? “I like ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ because they pass up all the ugly metal trees and pick the little scraggly real one.” IF SANTA COULD BRING YOU ANYTHING, WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE HIM BRING YOU? “A four-wheeler because my daddy won’t buy one for me.” IF YOU COULD PICK OUT A NEW SUIT FOR SANTA, WHAT WOULD IT BE? “I want it to stay the same. I’m pretty traditional.” WHAT DO YOU WANT EVERYONE WHO IS READING THIS TO KNOW ABOUT YOU? “I take a shower every day.” —Jaren Hayes photo courtesy of WWW.WKIHNACHTSMAKKT-UKI'TSCIILANU.UK Above, German families display an Adventkranz wreath for the four weeks before Christmas, lighting a new candle each week. Above right, the lighting of Greece’s Christmas tree and Christmas boat, which took place Monday, featured fireworks. Tim (TIcfTlanus FOR THE GAMECOCK Whether we’re watching a ball drop at midnight, eating so much turkey that we can’t keep our eyes open or spending lots of money on gifts for our loved ones, we Americans love our holiday customs. But we are not the only ones with rich holiday traditions. Germany, for example, has a four-week-long Christmas celebration. Phillip Kuemmel, a first-year business student from Germany, said that in Germany, the four Sundays before Christmas Eve are known as Advents. At each Advent, a German family and most of their immediate relatives gather for an Advent dinner, where turkey is the main course. To commemorate these Advents, the family has an Adventskranz, essentially a wreath laid on a table instead of hung on a door. Adventskranz are made from pine needles and hold four candles. The family lights a candle at each Advent dinner. Caroling is a big part of Christmas in Germany, and is done on Christmas Eve, typically by children. “If they’re in a music organization, like at their school, they schedule times where they go to retirement homes,” Kuemmel said. “They play for old people who no longer live at home and are not a part of the celebration.” He said that New Year’s in Germany is “not that much of a family holiday. It’s for friends.” Like in some parts of the U.S., a German New Year’s consists of drinking and setting off fireworks at midnight, he said. But in Germany, there are more fireworks than in the U.S. “Everybody has fireworks,” Kuemmel said. Many Germans try to find spots on high ground, such as atop a hill, or out in the open so they can see all the fireworks, he said. Kuemmel said his family, whose house has a flat roof, has to clean all the exploded fireworks off their roof after a New Year’s celebration. Milena Iotova, a fourth-year French and international studies student from Bulgaria, said Christmas in Bulgaria has gone through several changes in the last century. Before the Communists took over Bulgaria in 1945, the country celebrated Christmas Jan. 7. Under Communist rule, which lasted until 1989, Bulgaria did not celebrate Christmas. “Before ’89,” Iotova said, “there was something, but it was more of a preparing for New Year’s.” After 1989, Bulgaria resumed celebrating Christmas, but looked to the West for inspiration, and now the country observes Christmas on Dec. 25. Bulgarian Christmases are “less commercial” than a Western Christmases, Iotova said. “My family never did presents on Christmas.” Under Communist rule, New Years Day became more similar to Christmas as Americans know it. Iotova said her family puts up Christmas trees and exchanges presents on New Year’s Day. Many Bulgarian families still do this, she added, but not all. Ryan Thomas, a USC graduate, spent the last yqar in Japan teaching conversational English. He said Christmas in Japan, where the holiday has no religious significance, is CUSTOmS • 9 Four USC * students explain how Christmas, New Years traditions differ in Germany, Bulgaria, Japan and England 4 Student regroups through music, physics ^ ^ Courtesy of Spencer Stanton Mott DiHHIo lott Pittc I oo PriHnron onrl Puon Uiirtcnn nt nolouoloH Ryan Hudson pursued other dreams after losing athletic abilities in mishap Kristen Truesdale FOR THE GAMECOCK Ryan Hudson’s journey from a high-school athlete to a USC physics graduate student and rock singer was not taken in one big leap. When Hudson, now 24 and employed with a mechanical engineering firm downtown, fell through an attic in high school, severing eight tendons and six nerves, his era as an athlete was over. After enduring hours of surgery *nd sleepless nights in intonce» noin tio ra^ltTod !■»a aaitlrl no longer push himself physically. Instead, he turned to his mental capabilities. “Through twists and turns, I ended up at Francis Marion University in Florence,” he said. “I picked the hardest thing I could think of — physics — for a major.” During his undergraduate years, Hudson joined a fraternity, became involved in several plays and started teaching martial arts. When his hand injuries improved, he picked up <in nU Vnirrli r/'kn/il frionrl* guitar. Remembering why he started playing the guitar in the first place, Hudson said it was because he wanted to prove his friends wrong after they turned him down for the part of lead singer in their band, claiming he had too much “soul” in his singing. Hudson was 16 and determined. “I could not play a single tune off the radio, except ‘Come as You Are’ by Nirvana,” he said. “Since I couldn’t play anybody else’s songs, I made up my own, and have been doing it ever since.” Once he started playing again, he saw a flier put up by a band needed a lead singer, so Hudson tried out. “We ran through a couple of cover tunes, and I did all right,” 4 he said. “Then came the one thing that set me apart from all the others. I pulled out my acoustic guitar and started playing my own songs, and they loved them.” Within three months, the band was recording its first album. Soon their name changed to Deleveled, and in 2003, their album “Later than Usual” was voted “Best Local Album” by readers of The Free Times. The band reappeared in The 'HUDSOfl^^ * m