MERRY CHR
and Happy New Year
The Quilfor&on
VOL. XXXXI GUILFORD COLLEGE, N. C., FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1954 NO. 10
Christmas Vacation Begins Tomorrow,
Classes Are To Resum
Annual SCA Christmas
Party Tonight
The Student Christian Associa
tion will hold its annual Christmas
party tonight from 8:00 until 11:00.
Each year the night before Christ
mas vacation, the S. C. A. holds a
campus-wide party in Founders
Hall for the entire faculty and stu
dent body.
If this year's party follows tradi
tion, there will be a large fire in
the Founders Hall fireplace, the
parlors will be well decorated, and
it will be over-run with people.
Christmas carols are sung, special
features and skits are presented,
and refreshments are served. It is,
indeed, quite a party.
A cordial invitation is being ex
tended to all the members of the
student body, both campus stu
dents and day students. Please plan
to attend.
This will be Ihe Inst issue of the
GUILFORDIAN until January
14. The copy deadline for that
issue will he January 9.
Staff Notice
There will be a meeting of
the GUILFORDIAN staff at
5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January
4. This meeting- was originally
cancelled, but due to a change
in plans has been re-scheduled.
All staff members are requested
to attend.
Christmas vacation begins officially tomorrow afternoon at 1:00
p. m., and classes resume at 8:30 a. m. on Tuesday, January 4. For the
next two and one-half weeks Guilford, along with the other colleges in
the area and in the country as a whole will celebrate the Christmas
holidays. We take such a vacation for granted, but has it always been
so?
Dot Pleasant Named
Christmas Queen
Miss Dorothy Ann Pleasant of
Thomasville, N. C., was crowned
the 1954 Christmas Queen last Sat
urday night at the Christmas
Dance. Miss Pleasant was elected
by the members of the Monogram
Club, who sponsored the dance,
and crowned just before intermis
sion by the 1953 Queen, Mrs. Curtis
Hege. She was escorted by Love
lace Bell of Goldsboro, N. C.
The Monogram Club Christmas
Dance was most successful and the
dance and its decorations were up
to the usual excellent standard of
the Monogram Club.
Dot Pleasant
Looking back a hundred years to
1 the Guilford of 1859 and before.
Dorothy L. Gilbert relates in Guil- j
ford: A Quaker College, that the j
Christmas vacation was not ob- j
served. In her book appears the j
following: "There was no vacation j
at Christmas in early years; at a
Friends' school one had vacation J
when Yearly Meeting convened in ;
Eleventh month, rather than at the |
holiday time celebrated by people
of the world."
This point of view stemmed from j
the idea held by the early Ana
baptists, Puritans, Separatists, and
Quakers. They held that the ob- I
servance of Christmas was a pagan |
festival rather than a Christian j
one. They believed Christmas had
become a time of drunkenness and
revelry rather than a time of
Christian worship. So strongly did
they believe this that in 1644, when j
the Puritans held control of Eng- !
land, Parliament abolished Christ
mas and forbade its celebration
throughout the realm as blasphemy j
and sacrilege.
Actually, according to the De
cember, 1954 issue of the Inter col
legian, the sources of the tradition
al ingredients of our contemporary
Christmas are an accumulation of
several centuries. Christmas prob
ably began around four thousand j
years ago in Mesopotamia, and was
celebrated in conjunction with the
beginning of the new year. From
this early beginning it added fea
tures of the Roman Saturnalia, and
then became associated with the
pagan gods of Germany. The Ger
man gods are the source of our use
of mistletoe at Christmas.
The idea of the early Quakers
contrasts greatly with the contem
porary observance of Christmas on
the Guilford College campus. It has
now become one of our principle
concrr is—evidenced by the activ- j
i y of the past two weeks.
Hobbs Plans Dorm
Party Tonight
At eleven o'clock tonight the
girls in Mary Hobbs Hall will all
gather in the parlor in their paja
mas, nighties, or other such appar
el for the annual dorm Christmas
party. The girls have been playing
the little games of Secret Santa for
the past week. Each person draws
a name, and the girl's name which
she draws is the girl to whom she
acts as a Santa, carrying little gifts
or doing little chores for her se
cretly. All the Santas will be re
vealed at the party when each girl
has a present for the friend to
whom she has been playing Santa.
Similar parties will be held in
Founders and Shore, for the
members of those dorms. These
intra-dorm parties are traditional
on the night before vacation.
Carols Tonight
Let's sing Christmas Carols
in Mary Hobbs Hall parlor to
night from 6:30 to 7:30!
Social Committee
Calendar of Events
December 17 January 14
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17
(1) Chapel. 10:15 a. m., Choir
(2) Non-cut day
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18
(1) Christmas Vacation begins
1:00 p. m.
(2) Non-cut dav
TUESDAY, JANUARY 4
(1) Classes resume 8:30 a. m.
(2) Begin no-cut period.
(3) Guilfordian Staff Meeting, 5:00
p. m.. Founders
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5
(1) Chapel. 10:15 a. m., Memorial
Hall, Dean Harvey Ljung
(2) Non-cut day
THURSDAY, JANUARY 6
(1) Guilford vs. Appalachian. Bas
ketball, Home, 8:00 p. m.
(2) Non-cut day
FRIDAY, JANUARY 7
(1) Chapel, 10:15 a. m„ Memorial
Hall, Honor Board ,
SATURDAY, JANUARY 8
(1) Guilford vs. Atlantic Christian,
Basketball, Wilson
TUESDAY, JANUARY 11
(1) Guilford vs. West Carolina,
Basketball, Home, 8:00 p. m.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12
(1) Chapel, 10:15 a. m., Memorial
Hall, Worship Service, S. C. A.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 13
(1) Guilford vs. Elon, Basketball,
Elon
FRIDAY, JANUARY 14
(1) Reading Day