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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1987-12-22, Page 15PAGE 14B—GODERICH SIGNAL -STAR, WEDNESDA a'. DECEMBER 23, 1987 ywwllhlu1` III`u,�0u ��► Ni` Now that Santa has reap- peared, it's a perfect time for us to say, "thank you", to the many people we've enjoyed serving throughout the year. STORE HOURS: Monday - Tuesday 8 - 6 Wednesday thru Friday 8:30 - 9 Saturday 8:00 - 5:30 Shanahan's FOODLAND The Square - Goderich 524-9411 Thanking you for your patronage over the past year. Merry Christmas & Happy. New Year. Best Wishes in the New Year to all our customers and friends BRECKLES AUTOMOTIVE REPAIRS Philip & Joyce Breckles From Our "House" to Yours! (Frank & Janie) WISHING YOU A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS RB VARIETY 239 Huron Road Gode rich 524-9995 MERRY CHRISTMAS We're happy to be of service to you all year round, and happy to extend good wishes for your happiness and joy this festive season. ED'S SHELL SELF SERVE 137 Victoria St. Nm Goderich 524-7422 Just rolling in to say, "May your holiday flower into a fun -filled time for all!" Many thanks for your valued business. FROM YOUR FRIENDS AT tip v- itt 440 Bayfield Rd. ., fE; 11 44 figs SOUTH END BOerich DY 524tl9181 Joy to You All This Season. GLJW)T/O/PIGS Don we now our gay apparel ...and our holiday thoughts of love. peace and harmony throughout the world. John Riordon and Staff FESTIVAL CITY RUSTPROOFING FESTIVAL CITY TRANSMISSION R.R. 4 STRATFORD 271-2651 [NI P10 CHAflOE BIAL 1.88dI-�65-8599 4 1 T e Little Match Girl BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSON t was the last day of the Old Year. Sounds of music and laughter filled the night as people gathered at parties to greet the New Year. Outside, a barefoot girl wandered through the snowy streets, the snowflakes clinging to her fair hair. Her hands, sore and numb, clung to the little bundles of matches she had been trying all day to sell. But no one in the hurrying crowd paused for even a moment to buy a bundle. Now it was late and there would be no more customers. Shivering with cold and hunger, she sat down m the corner bet- ween two houses drawing her feet under her tattered skirt for warmth. As she looked down at the matches in her lap, a thought struck her. The light of just one little match might warm her frozen fingers. Drawing one out, she struck it against the wall. Suddenly, in its friendly magical glow she saw a firelit room, cozy and warm. She could almost feel the heat of the blazing logs. Then the little flame flickered and died. Once more she was back in the snow - swept street, a burned match in her hand. Eagerly, she struck a second match. Again she was back in the firelit room. This time she saw a table piled high with holiday food. She stretched out her hand towards a plate. The flame died out. She struck a third match. This one burned even brighter than the others. Now she was sitting under a tall Christmas tree hung with shiny or- naments and sparkling with tiny winking lights. The child stretched out her hands in delight — and at that moment the match went out. Above her in the night sky, the stars burned as bright as Christmas lights on her upturned face. One star fell, light streaming behind it like a fiery tail. "Somewhere, someone is dying," whispered the little match girl. Her grandmother — the only person who had ever been kind to her and who had died long ago — had told her once that whenever a star fell a spirit returned to the God who had created it. A' She struck another match.. Now in the flame she saw her dear grandmother again. She was smiling gently and tenderly, as the girl always remembered her. "Grandmother," cried the little girl: "Do not leave me when the flames die away. Take me with you for 1 am cold and lonely." Quickly the child lit all the unused matches in the bundle. They - burned in such a blaze of glory that she seemed to be sitting in a pool of light. Her grandmother grasped the child's cold little hand and together they flew away to Paradise, where the little match girl would never again know cold or hunger. In the cold light of the New Year's morning, the child was found frozen to death, one bundle of burned out matches in her lap. "Poor child, she was trying to warm herself," thought the people passing by. But they were puzzled by the sweet smile on her. lips for none could know of the wonderful visions she had seen before she sped so joyously to a happier home. Test your yuletide trivia skills rom sugarplums to lamb's wool, reindeer to Dickens: how much holiday lore do you know? There are 12 months of the year, 12 Days of Christmas and 12 Apostles. It seems fitting, therefore, that a Christmas quiz — how much do you know about Yule lore and traditions — boast 12 probing questions to test your mettle. Questions 1. What country is credited with hav- ing the first Christmas tree, and who in- troduced the Christmas tree to England? And while we're on the subject of trees, what American president was the first to have a Christmas tree in the White House? 2. Why is December 26th called "Box- ing Day" in England? 3. Who was the original Saint Nicholas? 4. At whom did the Spirit of Christmas Past clank its rusted chains in warning? What effect did this have? 5. Who were The Three Magi and what gifts are they traditionally credited with having brought the Christ Child? 6. What American illustrator first located Santa Claus' headquarters at the North Pole? 7. In connection with Christmas celebrations, what is lamb's wool? 8. What were the earliest Christmas tree ornaments? 9. Where is Grandfather Frost an im- portant figure in winter holiday celebrations? 10. What are "sugarplums"? 11. What is the derivation of the ab- breviation "Xmas" for "Christmas"? 12. Can you name all eight of Santa's reindeer in "A Visit from Saint Nicholas," the immortal Christmas poem which begins, "'Twas the night before Christmas?" Answers 1. It is generally acknowledges that the Christmas tree originated in Ger- many, and one lovely legend attributes the idea of decorating and evergreen to Martin Luther, who, gazing upon the starlit evening sky through a curtain of tree branches, admired the scene's beau- ty so greatly that he decided to recreate it in his home, where he adorned a tree with a multitude of flickering candles. It was the mid -19th century before the idea of a Christmas tree was popularized in England, thanks to Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's German consort, who decorated a tree in 1844. Only a few years laterethe idea crossed the Atlantic; but it was not until 1856 that an American president, Franklin Pierce, first set up a Christmas tree in the White House, beginning a tradition which con- tinues to the present day. Boxing Day, which is significant enough to be a Bank Holiday in the British Isles, has nothing to do with pro- fessional contact sports. Rather, it is the day when, by custom, the alms boxes, which have been filled during the weeks preceding Christmas, are opened and their contents distributed to the needy. 3. St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, proto-type was not originally a figure of fun and jollity, but a bishopfrom Asia Minor, an historical personage who dates from the third century AD and to whom, after his death, various good deeds, some miraculous, were ascribed. The most famous of the tales of his acts recounts how St. Nicholas bestowed dowries on three sisters who were destin- ed, because of their father's poverty, to a life of deprivation. On three successive nights, St. Nicholas secretly tossed a bag of golf down the chimney of the girls' home, providing them with the means that otherwise they would have lacked to wed. St. Nicholas Day, December 6th, is celebrated particulary in the Netherlands, and it was the Dutch who brought him to the New World, even when they settled Nieuw Amsterdam (New York, today). It was Washington Irving, a 19th cen- tury writer from New York who was steeped in the Dutch legends of the area in which he had grown up, who brought St. Nick to life on the written page, as a giver of gifts and figure of merriment. 4. Ebenezer Scrooge, in Charles Dickens' fable A Christmas Carol, is visited b the Spirit of Christmas Past who sternly warns him of the consequences of the miserly life he has led.' He is reformed, thanks not only to the efforts of the Spirit of Christmas Past, but to those of the ghost of his dead part- ner, Jacob Marley, and to the offices of Tiny Tim, the crippled young son of Scrooge's office clerk Bob Cratchit. 5. The Three Magi, the wise men who journeyed to Bethlehem guided by the light of a single star, are not named in the New Testament nor are they iden- tified as kings, nor is their number limited to three. Art and literature have had a profound effect on their identification; thus Balthazar, Melchoir and Gaspar are known around the world today as the adoring kings who brought the valuable gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the newly norn Christ child in His manger. 6. Thomas Nast, whose drawing originally appeared in the popular American newspaper, Harper's Weekly, has don* much to influence modern -clay image of Santa, including locating his home in the snowy reaches of the North Pole. 7. Lamb's Wool, nicknamed that because of the pieces of toast which gar- nish it and bear a striking resemblance to fleece, was a kind of wassail, which in- cluded also more customary ingredients — ale, apples, eggs, sugar and such spice as cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. 8. Generally, early Christmas tree or- naments included lit candles, cookies cut in unusual shapes and festively decorated, gold foil patterns, sweetmeats and fragrant red apples. 9. In the Soviet Union, where the observance of religious holidays as such is not encouraged, Grandfather Frost has replaced Father Christmas as the central figure of the winter holiday season, br- inging gifts to eommemmorate New Year's Day, a secular occasion. 10. The "visions of sugarplums" danc- ing in the heads.of the children dreaming in "A Visit from St. Nicholas" were almost certainly simulating the dreamers' tastebuds as well. Sugarplums, often cystallized fruits and not only plums, were gaily wrapped in silver foil. 11. The "X" is "Xmas" is the Greek symbol for the "Chi", the initial letter in Greek of Christ's name. Anglicized, "Xmas" is "Chinas" — thus easily seen as simply an abbreviation which gained currency at least eight centuries ago. 12. No, Rudolph was not among them! In Clement Moore's famous poem, Santa names his eight reindeer as he urges them along inthe following immortal lines, "Now Dasher! now Dancer! now Prancer! now Vixon! On Comet! on Cupid! on Donder and Blitzen!" Jingle Bell Rock Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock. Jingle bells swing and jingle bells ring. Snowin' and blowin' up bushels of fun Now the jingle hop has begun. Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock Jingle bells chime in jingle bell time Dancin' and prancin' in Jingle Bell Square In the frosty air. What a bright time, it's the right time .110-r �,�, ONE OF g rtt.44 LIFE'S LITTLE WWI )1 imm___Taweno, PLEAS Wishing all our friends, young and old, a very Merry Christmas and Joyous New Year. From the Management and Staff of: M -W MOTORS LIMITED YOUR VOLVO & MAZDA DEALER 184 EAST STREET, GODERICH 5242113 To rock the night away. Jingle bell time is a swell time To go ridin' horses in a one-horse sle'gh. Giddy yap jingle horse, pick up your feet Jingle around the clock. Mix and mingle in a jinglin' beat That's the jingle bell rock. A time to sing joyfully, as we extend our best wishes to all. dl 1i fn;;;;n11'illp li, nli." eli yili hz.1111 CLOSED CHRISTMAS DAY WEST STREET LAUNDROMAT S4 West Street . Gederlch 'Thank you For Your Lasting Patronage'