HARDING NEWS AND VIEWS

November 8, 2013

In this issue:

Holidays

DYK Christmas

Comics

Fun Page

Sports

Minecraft Club

6th Grade News Letter

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Holidays

Sydney-Advent

Advent is a festive season from late November to

Christmas. it is a Christian holiday, and has a couple

days specifically honored in the season, including the

first, second, and fourth Sunday. The third is called

Gaudete Sunday, meaning joy. This season is a large

part of Christmas. The season’s roots can be traced to

Sweden, where Lutheran religion was first truly

embraced, and was then a holiday to be celebrated by

all Christians. Advent wreaths are a symbol of

Advent. Three purple candles, and one white candle

are put in the reef. Do you celebrate Advent? What

do you know about Advent? Tell us. We would love

to hear!

Kim-Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa was celebrated by African Americans. Black,

red, and green are colors of Kwanzaa. Black is for the

skin color of the African Americans. Red is for

continuing struggles, and green is for lush, hills of

Africa. Green also represent hope from the children.

Did you know there are seven principles of Kwanzaa?

They are umoji-unity, kujichagulia-self-determination,

ujima-cooperative economics, nia-purpose, kuumba-

creativity, and imani-faith. All of these words stand for

one of the candles. On the first day they light the black

candle and someone will recite the first principle and so

on until Kwanzaa is over. On the second day the red

candle is light, and the second principles. On the third

day the green one is lit, on the fourth the red. Do you

know the next three candle colors that are going to be

lit? Do you celebrate Kwanzaa? What do you do? We

would love to hear what you have to tell us about this

culture!

Cora-New Year’s Eve/Day News Year Day is celebrated all throughout the world. It is observed

on January 1st, and begins at 12:00am. It was a celebration for a new begin-ning, of the New Year. While celebration varies all over the world, common traditions include:

Making resolutions or goals to improve one’s life

Common resolutions concern diet, exercise, bad habits, and other issues concerning personal wellness. A common view is to use the first day of the year as a clean slate to improve one’s life.

A gathering of loved ones

Here you’ll typically find champagne, feasting, confetti, noise makers, and other methods of merriment

Fireworks, parades, concerts

Famous parades include London’s New Year’s Day Parade and the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California.

Superstitions concerning food or visitors to bring luck

This especially includes circle-shaped foods, which symbolize cycles. The reasoning behind superstitions is that the first day of the year sets precedent for the following days. A common superstition specific to New Year’s Day concerns a household’s first visitor of the year—tradition states that if a tall, dark-haired stranger is the first to walk through your door, called the First Footer or Lucky Bird, you’ll have good luck all year. Also, if you want to sub-scribe to superstition, don’t let anything leave the house on New Year’s, ex-cept for people. Tradition say’s: don’t take out the trash and leave anything you want to take out of the house on New Year’s outside the night before. If you must remove something, make sure to replace it by bringing an item into the house. These policies of balance apply in other areas as well—avoiding paying bills, breaking anything, or shedding tears.

Toasting Toasts typically concern gratefulness for the past year’s blessings, hope and luck or the future, and thanking guests for their New Year’s company. In coastal regions, running into a body of water or splashing water on one another, symbolizing the cleansing, “rebirth” theme associated with the holiday.

Joan-Christmas Christmas is a major holiday that is celebrated all around the world, and starts on December 25th. The original date of the celebration in eastern Christianity was January 6th, Christmas day is celebrated as a major festival and public holiday in countries around the world including many whose population are mostly non-Christian. Christmas gift-giving during the Middle Ages was usually between people with relationships, such as tenant and landlord. The exchange of gifts is one of the core aspects of the modern Christmas celebrations making if the most profita-ble time of year for retailers and businesses throughout the world.

Isabella- Hanukkah Hanukkah is a holiday celebrated by the jewish religion. Hanuk-

kah,also known as the festival of lights. This holiday will start anytime from November to December. A menorah is set of candles with seven smaller can-dles and one larger one in the center. Normally the candles are lit after night-fall. During hanukkah the family will gather around the menorah to say bless-ings. This year hanukkah started on the 27th of November and lasted until the 5th of December.

Holidays

Did you know?

Why do have the Candy Cane? The first historical reference to the familiar cane shape goes back to 1670, when the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, bent the sugar-sticks into canes to represent a shepherd's staff. http://inventors.about.com/od/foodrelatedinventions/a/candy_canes.htm

Why do we have Christmas Trees? The evergreen tree was an ancient symbol of life in the midst of winter. Romans decorated their houses with evergreen branches during the New Year, and an-cient inhabitants of northern Europe cut evergreen trees and planted them in boxes inside their houses in wintertime. Many early Christians were hostile to such practices. The second-century theologian Tertullian condemned those Christians who celebrated the winter festivals, or decorated their houses with laurel boughs in honor of the emperor: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/thepastinthepresent/storybehind/whychristmastrees.html

Why do we give presents?

One of the main reasons we have the custom of giving and receiving presents at Christmas, is to remind us of the presents given to Jesus by the Wise Men: Frankincense, Gold and Myrrh. Frankincense was a perfume used in Jewish worship and, as a gift, it showed that people would worship Jesus. Gold was associated with Kings and Christians believe that Jesus is the King of Kings. Myrrh was a perfume that was put on dead bodies to make them smell nice and, as a gift, it showed that Jesus would suffer and die. Christmas itself is really about a big present that God gave the world about 2000 years ago - Jesus!

http://www.whychristmas.com/customs/presents.shtml

Comics

Garfield: Jim Davis

Peanuts: Charles M. Shultz

Fun Page

SANTA

ELVES

REINDEER

GIVING

GIFTS

FAMILY

STOCKINGS

KWANZAA

ADVENT

ORNAMENTS

LIGHTS

It’s Holiday Time

T S X Q P M G W S T

A H T R J I M T L N

S A O N V P O L I E

T S Z I E C P O G V

F H N N K M S L H D

I G S I A A A X T A

G E N E N W V N S W

I G Z T V B K N R W

S F A M I L Y B H O

R E E D N I E R J C

Can YOU find them all??

Sports

The 6th grade ho-ho-hooping teams have continued their sea-sons on Sunday, playing 3 games in all this past weekend. The boys played two games, one against Avon, the other against North Olmsted. They got out of the weekend with a 2-1 one record for the season. The girls played just one game, against Westlake. They came out of the day with their third loss. Now for an exclusive inter-view with Sean O’Donnell: Q: How do you feel about your teams start to the season? A: I have to say that since we won our first 2 out of 3 games, I’d say that we are having a great season. Q: Do you think that your team can keep the over .500 record through the season? Why or why not? A: I don't know, we have played very not good teams but we work together great. So we should be able to DOMINATE THE COURT! Q:When the playoffs come, do you think that you will make it far? Are you prepared for more challenging games? A: I think that when the playoffs come we should get far, cham-pionship far. But I expect to play more challenging teams, teams can get better but so can we. Q: I wish your team good luck through the remainder of the sea-son, and a merry Christmas. A: Thank you, I’m excited for both!!!!!!

Wow... he’s pumped for the boy’s season! Christmas is a time for togetherness and giving...and fun and exotic sweaters… But, the holidays can also be celebrated with grueling workouts. The boys are ready for this aspect of the holidays, now lets see what Payton Ros-sen thinks about the girls start to their holiday/basketball season: Q: How do you feel about the start of the season for your team, and how will you prepare for what’s ahead? A: I think that the start of our season was a little rocky but I think we are getting better. I think that our team is prepared for what comes ahead. Q: What do you really want to work on as the season progress-es, and in what ways will it affect your teams play? A: Our team really wants to work on plays and communication as the season progresses. Q: I wish your team good luck through the remainder of the sea-son, and a happy happy holiday. A: Thank you, I wish your team the best of luck too!

The Harding “Ho-Ho” Hooper's

Now for Cameron’s sports poem,

“The game before Christmas” ‘Twas the game before Christmas and all through the court, The rangers were stirring… How they loved their sport, The shots were made in the basket with care, In hopes that soon a win would be there. The fans were yelling all snug in their seats, While visions of winning dashed through the streets, And coach in his long prayer, that vict’ry is near, And all the team breathless, they looked like reindeer. The score was now tied, at 45 all, The kids were trying to get really tall, the game now reached a horrid point where, the opposing team scored, now with two points to spare And then in the stands, there arose such a clatter, The guy on the roof had fell from his ladder, The children all looked with curious eyes, And so that was the Christmas surprise Now Rangers had ball they ran down the court, Opponents still dazed, they had no more sport, The shot was made swift, and truly okay, The ball went in, the rangers were saved! And as they all cheered, tired from work, The fans were so frantic they hit the school clerk, ‘Twas the game before Christmas and coach had to say, Ho-ho-hooping to all, and to all a good day.

Boys Roster: 1.Gabe Beaver 2.Max Budzar 3.Antonio Cintron 4.Julian Cleminson 5.Ryan Graber 6.Colin Hill 7.Cormac Kramer 8.Julian Keries 9.Andrew Griffin 10.Hunter Holyko 11.Sean O'donnell 12.Nolan Baker

Girls Roster: 1.Ava Clause 2.Payton Rossen 3.Morgan Harper 4.Christina Auck 5.Joan Wilburn 6.Autumn Sadler 7.Asia McAuliffe 8.Kallie Mitchell 9.Anna Trentel 10.Cynthia Mendez

Minecraft Club

Minecraft Club Mini Games The Minecraft Club supervised by Mr. Kerney had a competition on best Christmas mini game. There were many groups. All ideas were great however only one PE and one XBOX 360 could win. The winner of the PE was . In this group was Logan and Kegan. The name of the game is Santa’s bag and the winner of the XBOX 360 was the great makers was snow Parkour. Also the winners of the Thanksgiving mini games were TvP (turkeys vs pilgrims) and Turkey Parkour. Interview with Mr. Kerney: Q: Why did this club on you take on? A: I did it because Minecraft is a very popular the kids game the kids are extremely passionate. Q: Before this club did you know of Minecraft A: Yes, I almost started one at my last school howev-er i moved to this school.