Newspapers / Meredith College Student Newspaper / Oct. 28, 2009, edition 1 / Page 2
Part of Meredith College Student Newspaper / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
PAOE 2 I THE MEREDITH HERALD | OCTOBER 28, 2009 IhM & fAleighaPfifge §AnnaTurner'!?’‘)!(l‘^ ? ' V ‘ ffiv 5' Layout Editors I fAshtey Matthews ^ : Anna-Peny iSpenWrTai sW« ■'’by "'■ thd'eclitwJalcoiiirTw^ >necessaril/ r thell^lege at^nrts^tidri;'' : faculty;wstu^lbo^;,. policy of.^papiar^-:^ i|uli;w that ':.•' Jiuraday WIVES FOR SALE Shana Whisenant Contributing Writer “Times are hard andjive have to downsize,” is what a father tells his little girl. “It is time to get rid of some things in your closet,” he says. The little girl starts thinking of all the things she does not want anymore. She knows she may have to give up her favorite shirt or most, -worn pair of jeans, but she is content as long she has her family. Her father is a .farmer in rural India and does not have much money. Her mother stays ' home to take care of the children since there are five of them. Her father starts to contemplate items that he can selj.' The farmer knows he-needs a large sum of money or he may potentially lose his house, his car, and everything he has worked for thus far. The farmer knows the one accessory that will earn, him a sufficient sum of money: his wife.. . According to CNN.com, a farmer’s har vest often determines feast or famine and a famier will go to crazy measures ' to sun/ive the bad years. In a region called Bundelkhand, spanning over the two northern India states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, famine, debt, and des peration have caused people to take extreme measures according to CNN. com. Farmers turn to the “Paisawalla" as means of getting loans for survival. The loans that these lenders provide usually have a high interest rate. When interest accumulates, lenders demand their money' Some-ferm- ers work as laborers for a lifetime to pay off their debt. Others know that because of the drought and failing harvests they are forced to give the lenders whatever they ask for. This can sometimes mean their wives ac cording to CNN.com. ' The selling of a woman may seem harsh but according to Ranjana Kumari with India's Center for Social Research, “The exploitation of women is common in this region.” And, when women do have the courage to. tell, there is little support for them. Accord ing to Kumari, if a family decides not to heip these women, the system is not sympathetic towards them. Women - usually dismiss their case. Accord- ' ing to an Indian government report in 1998, the “region is prone to what it calls “atrocities," including the buying . and selling of women." Social workers say it is not just about poverty but how women have a low social status in pov erty-stricken areas like Bundelkhand. Women in poverty are ^/ulnerable to physical and sexual.explQitation,” says Kumari. Violence against women is also high in these areasi . It is hard to believe that women coul^ be treated as nothing more than something you sell at a yard sale. Clothes, jewelry, or an old pair of shoes are all things you might sell to make a few extra dollars, but not your wife! In America, women are equal to men and should be treated thait way. In India, the govemment and charities are trying to help women, but their status stiil remains low due to the fact they are seen as a financial burden. We, as Americans, should be grateful for the freedom we have. THE HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN Jennifer Cash Staff Writer • Halloween is the one time of year people get to dress up in costumes and eat as much candy as they want, but Halloween didn't originally originate for this purpose. According to the History Channel, Halloween dates back 2000 year to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The area which is now Ireland, along with the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated New Year’s on November 1. This day marked the end of the summer and han/est and the. beginning of the cold winter, a time that was associated with human death. The Celts believed that the night before the New Year the boundary between the woHds between the living and the dead became blurred. On Oc tober 31, they would celebrate Samhain during the time which they believed the ghosts of the dead returned to Earth. The Celts believed that the presence of the spirits of the dead would help Druids (Celtic priests) make predictions about the future. The Celts depended on the predictions as a source of comfort and direction during the long winter. Druids would build scared bonfires where the people would gather to burn crops and animals as a sacrifice to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, Celts wore costumes, usually consisting of animal heads and skins. They would also attempt to tell each other’s fortunes. At the end of the celebration, they would take fire from the sacred bonfire to light their own fires at home. They felt the fire from the sacred fire would help protect them during winter. ByA.D. 43, the Romans had con quered the majority of the Celtic territory. During the four hundred years that the Romans njled the Celts, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans commemorated the passing 'of the dead. The second was a day honoring the Roman goddess of fruit and tress, Pomona. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, and during this time people bobbed for apples during the celebration of Samhain. By the 800’s, the influence of Christianity spread Into the Celtic land. During the seventeenth century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints Day, a time to honor the saints. Sources say the Pope was trying to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a more church related holiday The celebration was also called All-Hallows and the night before was called All-Hallows-Eve. Eventually the named changed to Halloween. During A.D. 1000, the church went on to make November 2 All Soul’s Day, a day to honor the dead. The All Soul's Day celebration was similar to the festival of Samhain. There were big bonfires and parades and people dressed in costumes as saints, angels - and devils, Together the three holidays were called Hallowmas. Later on, once Europeans started coming to America, they brought with .them their varied Halloween customs. The. rigid Protestant belief system in New England made the celebration of Halloween in colonial times limited; it was more common in Maryland and the Southern states. The Europeans and Americans Indians meshed their customs and beliefs together.The first celebration included play parties, pub- . lie events held to celebrate the harvest where people would share stories of the dead, tell each other’s fortune, dance and sing. This festival also included the telling of ghost stories. By the middle of the nineteenth century, mid autumn festivals were common: During the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with immigrants. The majority of these new immigrants were the Irish escaping from the potato famine of 1846. The Irish helped popularize the celebration of Halloween as we know it today They combined their tradi tions with those of the Americans, The Americans began dressing up in cos-, tumes and going from house to house asking for food or money, known today as trick-or-treating. Young women believed that on Halloween they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors. In the late 1800's, America decided to make Halloween a holiday about community and neighborly gatherings rather than about ghosts, pranks and. witchcraft. Halloween parties became the most common way to celebrate the day The parties focused on games, the food of the season and festive costumes. Newspapers encouraged parents to take anything frightening or grotesque out of Halloween celebra tions. Because of these efforts, Hallow een lost most of its superstitions and religious overtones during the early twentieth century. Bythe1920s-and 1930s, Hal loween had become a community centered holiday with parades and town-wide partjes. By the 1950s it evolved into a holiday for the young. Due to the fifties baby boom and the large amounts of children, parties were moved from the community into the classroom or the home. Between 1920 and 1950, the practice of trick-or- . treating was revived. Trick-or-treating became an inexpensive way for the entire communify to celebrate Hal loween. Treats were given to. neighbor hood children to prevent them playing tricks on people. This grew into the American tradition we know of today Today, Americans spend an esti mated $6.9 billion annually on Hallow een; $2 billion is spent pn candy alone,, making Halloween the second largest - commercial holiday after Christmas. Remember to have a safe and fun Halloween! , ' Photo courtesy: http://www.dotcomw6men. com^imagBs/orafis/halloween/bat-pattQm.gif
Meredith College Student Newspaper
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Oct. 28, 2009, edition 1
2
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75