Elon University - Phi Psi Cli Yearbook (Elon, NC)

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Halloween; Yesterday ' s stories, Today ' s pictures here at Elon College. The Celtic festival of Samhain is probably the source of the present- day Halloween celebration. The Celts lived more than 2,000 years ago in what is now Great Britain, Ire- land and northern France. Their new year began on November 1 . A festival that began the previous evening hon- ored Samhain, the Celtic lord of death. The celebration marked the beginning of the season to cold, darkness, and decay. It naturally be- came associated with human death. The Celts believed that Samhain al- lowed the souls of the dead to return to their earthly homes for this even- ing. On the evening of the festival, the Druids, who were the priests and teachers of the Celts, ordered the people to put out their hearth fires. The Druids built a huge new year ' s bonfire of oak branches, which they considered sacred. They burned ani- mals, crops, and possibly human be- ings as sacrifices. Then each family relit its hearth fire from the new year ' s fire. Duhng the celebration, people sometimes wore costumes made of animal heads and skins. They told fortunes about the coming year by examining the remains of the animals that had been sacrificed. Many early American settlers came from England and other Celtic re- gions, and they brought various cus- toms with them. But because of the strict religious beliefs of other set- tlers, Halloween celebrations did not become popular until the 1800 ' s. During that period, large numbers of immigrants arrived from Ireland and Scotland and introduced their Hal- loween customs. I Today, Halloween is celebrated across the country and knows no age limits. | y y

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Is Uncle Sam ig brother? How about Ma Bell? s finally 1984, the most highly antici- ited year of the century. The question any people are asking themselves is lether or not George Orwell ' s fears ' the future were true, and if any of the mgs that he predicted actually have me into being. )rtunately for us, Orwell ' s frightening Drid of spies, thought control and no ivacy has not come to pass; yet. Or- 3ll himself probably did not expect the world to be quite as bad as he made it out to be in his book. His main objective was to scare his fellow intellectuals and everyone else into realizing the dangers of Socialism, before it was too late. There is, however, one thing Orwell pre- dicted that has come to pass. Big Brother is able to watch his people and know what each and every one is up to. Although Uncle Sam is not quite as effi- cient as Big Brother, he does have his own way of keeping track of each American. Today almost every Ameri- can has a number which allows the government, or whoever has access to it, to gain information about the individ- ual. So in this year of 1 984 The Party slo- gans of. He who controls the past con- trols the future; War is peace; Slavery is Freedom; Ignorance is Strength, have little truth for today Hopefully no one will ever have to live in a world as frighten- ing as George Orwell ' s world of 1984. George Orwell Born in 1903 in India and educated at Eton, Orwell ' s career was varied — Burma service in the Imperial Police, two years in Paris, and teaching in Eng- land preceded the war in Spain and Home Guard membership in World War II. A frequent contributor to literary re- views, Orwell ' s previous books were Animal Farm, Burmese Days, and Down and Out in London and Paris. 25

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I With the full-moon, the ghools came out around Elon. (whether it ' s Halloween or ? not); College students spend more time planning and preparing their costumes than kids do.