Saturday was a day of victory and defeat, a day that our Speechies fought hard in a long, hard battle of wits. The Tualatin tournament is over! Our team went against twenty-five other schools, the most so far this year. There were a total of 166 speakers all competing for bragging rights.
Here are the results, starting with the open division.
Caitlyn McLauchlin took home first place for both her humorous interpretation and her poetry! Her poetry focused on the common man, starting off with a poem that she herself had written. Her humorous interpretation was once again the hilarious “Anton in Show Business” by Jane Martin.
The dynamic Duo of Russel Hay and Kinzi Silburn obtained first place for their Dual interpretation entitled ” I Love You, Your Perfect, Now Change”. Kinzi also took first with her radio on “sexting”.
The duo of the talented Miss Desi Hall and Miss Chelsea Hill took second in the open round. These two are novices who held their own against more experienced competitors. Their selection was” Hairum Scarum” by Christina Hamlett.
Dante Haruna came in third place for Humorous interpretation (HI) with a selection from James in the Giant Peach. Dante’s humorous interpretation was originally a prose. But Dante loved it so much he simply had to change it into a HI.
The Novices worked very rigorous and here are the results.
The domineering Robin Hill walked away with second place for her dramatic interpretation and second place for her radio entitled “technology”. As always Robin presented fierce competition with her DI, which was once again “Prissy Thomas” written by Sarie Fischer Norval.
Chelsea Hill came sliding into third place with her prose called Junie B, First Grader, Toothless Wonder by Barbara Park.
Autumn Gritzbach took home first for her dramatic interpretation. Even though she had the shortest piece she still presented a fierce determination the rounds. Her piece was a cutting from Children of the Flames by Lucette Lagnado and Sheila Dekel. It was quite a macabre piece that captured the judges’ fascination and quite a bit of the competitors as well.
Everyone did great at the Tualatin tournament. Even though some didn’t place they still tried their hardest. And everyone had fun or at least looked like they did.
“One of the other coaches told his team earlier in the week that the awards are secondary to the education received in competitive speaking. I shared this with the team on the bus ride home, adding that making friends, giving encouragement and grace in all circumstances are qualities that set the Bandon High School speech team apart,” Coach Ellen Howard said with a smile.
Way to go speech team! Keep it up! Congratulations to all who placed! And congratulations to those who didn’t place for trying hard!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Speech Tournament This Friday!
What are those Speechies up to? Well, they will be traveling to Tualatin this Friday for the second speech tournament. That’s right! The speech team has been working on their speeches not only in preparation for Sweet Speeches but also for the dreaded Tualatin tournament.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The story of Samhain
For thousands of years the tradition of Halloween has been celebrated. Halloween was originally the sacred festival of Samhain, the Celtic festival of the dead. The Celts believed that the day of October 31, was the day that the dead returned to earth and wreaked havoc on the crops and the people. The Celts thought that the presence of their other worldly guests made it simpler for the Druids (you know those creepy guys who sacrificed people) could foretell the coming years harvest.
To people who were entirely dependent on the on the unpredictable natural world, these stories helped to qualm their fears.
To commemorate the event the Druid priests would light the Sacred Bonfire where the people would gather to burn sacrifices of crops and animals to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts would wear costumes (Hmm, this seems familiar. Don’t ya think?) that mainly consisted of animal heads and skins (ok that’s just weird) During the celebration the Celts would attempt to tell each other’s fortunes. After the festival they would relight their hearth fires with flame from the Sacred Bonfire to see them safely through the long, dark winter. When it was easy to join the lost souls and become one with the dead.
In A.D. 43 the Romans had conquered much of the Celtic territory. In the course of their four hundred year rule two of the Romans most important festivals merged with the ancient ritual of Samhain. The first festival that merged was Feralia, which was the day the Romans commemorated the passing of the dead. The second day was the day the Romans celebrated Pomona, the goddess of the fruit and trees. Oddly enough the only relic of this merging with the day of Pomona is bobbing for apples, which was the sacred symbol of Pomona.
Then by the 800’s Christianity had spread to the Celtic lands. During the seventh century Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints Day, a time to honor the saints and martyrs. It is now believed that Pope Boniface IV did this in an attempt to rid the world of the Celtic day of the dead. And so the night of Samhain came to be called All Hallows Eve.
Halloween wasn’t really celebrated in America until the late 1800’s when the influx of immigrants was booming from Ireland and England. They brought the traditions of wearing costumes and going from house to house asking for food or money to the streets of America.
Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion dollars annually on Halloween, making it the second largest commercial holiday.
P.S. This reporter likes chocolate if you liked the article!
To people who were entirely dependent on the on the unpredictable natural world, these stories helped to qualm their fears.
To commemorate the event the Druid priests would light the Sacred Bonfire where the people would gather to burn sacrifices of crops and animals to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts would wear costumes (Hmm, this seems familiar. Don’t ya think?) that mainly consisted of animal heads and skins (ok that’s just weird) During the celebration the Celts would attempt to tell each other’s fortunes. After the festival they would relight their hearth fires with flame from the Sacred Bonfire to see them safely through the long, dark winter. When it was easy to join the lost souls and become one with the dead.
In A.D. 43 the Romans had conquered much of the Celtic territory. In the course of their four hundred year rule two of the Romans most important festivals merged with the ancient ritual of Samhain. The first festival that merged was Feralia, which was the day the Romans commemorated the passing of the dead. The second day was the day the Romans celebrated Pomona, the goddess of the fruit and trees. Oddly enough the only relic of this merging with the day of Pomona is bobbing for apples, which was the sacred symbol of Pomona.
Then by the 800’s Christianity had spread to the Celtic lands. During the seventh century Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints Day, a time to honor the saints and martyrs. It is now believed that Pope Boniface IV did this in an attempt to rid the world of the Celtic day of the dead. And so the night of Samhain came to be called All Hallows Eve.
Halloween wasn’t really celebrated in America until the late 1800’s when the influx of immigrants was booming from Ireland and England. They brought the traditions of wearing costumes and going from house to house asking for food or money to the streets of America.
Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion dollars annually on Halloween, making it the second largest commercial holiday.
P.S. This reporter likes chocolate if you liked the article!
Jack O'lantern the full story
What follows is a story that has been passed down from generation upon generation in my family it is the story of how the Jack O’Lantern came to be.
It all started in Ireland the place where my mother’s family (well half of it any way) with a man called Stingy Jack. The tale says that Stingy Jack had invited the devil to have a drink with him. And true to his name Jack didn’t want to pay for the drinks, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin to pay for the drinks. When the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and so put the coin in his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the devil from changing back into his original form. Well this made the Devil furious. Jack eventually freed the Devil under the condition that the Devil wouldn’t bother him for a year, and that should Jack die, he could not claim his soul.
The next year the Devil came looking for Jack. And conniving Stingy Jack tricked the Devil into climbing a tree to pick an apple. While Satan was still in the tree, Jack carved a cross into the bark of the tree so the Devil could not climb down. Jack then struck another deal with the Devil. Jack made the Devil promise that he would not bother Jack for ten more years.
Soon after the Devils promise, Jack died. And as the legend goes, God would not allow such an insalubrious figure into Heaven. And the Devil true to his word did not lay claim on his soul, refused to allow Jack into Hell. But the Devil was upset about being tricked sent Jack into the cold, dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the burning coal into a carved-out turnip.
People started carving their own lanterns to scare away the lost soul of Stingy Jack and other evil spirits. So remember the story of Stingy Jack, and no harm shall befall you.
It all started in Ireland the place where my mother’s family (well half of it any way) with a man called Stingy Jack. The tale says that Stingy Jack had invited the devil to have a drink with him. And true to his name Jack didn’t want to pay for the drinks, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin to pay for the drinks. When the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and so put the coin in his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the devil from changing back into his original form. Well this made the Devil furious. Jack eventually freed the Devil under the condition that the Devil wouldn’t bother him for a year, and that should Jack die, he could not claim his soul.
The next year the Devil came looking for Jack. And conniving Stingy Jack tricked the Devil into climbing a tree to pick an apple. While Satan was still in the tree, Jack carved a cross into the bark of the tree so the Devil could not climb down. Jack then struck another deal with the Devil. Jack made the Devil promise that he would not bother Jack for ten more years.
Soon after the Devils promise, Jack died. And as the legend goes, God would not allow such an insalubrious figure into Heaven. And the Devil true to his word did not lay claim on his soul, refused to allow Jack into Hell. But the Devil was upset about being tricked sent Jack into the cold, dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the burning coal into a carved-out turnip.
People started carving their own lanterns to scare away the lost soul of Stingy Jack and other evil spirits. So remember the story of Stingy Jack, and no harm shall befall you.
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