Mirror - Vol. 17, No. 06 - October 29, 1992

              The
FairfieldMRRORV Volume 17, No. 6 Thursday, October 29, 1992 Happy Halloween
FUSA President Opens
Talks With Police Chief
Debra De Shong
News Editor
Open communication is
essential to everything from mar-riage
to foreign policy. This is a
lesson the Fairfield University
Student Association (FUSA) has
recently learned and is attempting
to live by.
Over the summer, a sys-tem
was devised, called The Early
Warning System, to alleviate the
tensions between the students and
year-round residents at the beach.
The system, developed by
FUSA in conjunction with Police
Chief Ron Sullivan and Univer-sity
Security failed in the first
weeks of the semester due to a
lack of communication but all
parties involved met on Monday
to open the lines of communica-tion
and hopefully come up with a
comprehensive plan to alleviate
the tensions at the beach.
The Early Warning Sys-tem,
which was backed by $22,000
from FUSA, was to take the form
of a student beach patrol but the
details such as when the students
were to be called and what their
role would be, were disputed
among FUSA President Steve Sh-annon
and Sullivan.
Both men met for the first
time on Monday and they called
the meeting "positive."
Shannon expressed the
concerns of the students and
Sullivan relayed the feelings of
the residents. The main topic how-ever,
was how to increase the role
of the students at the beach.
Shannon said, "The pro-gram
(the Early Warning System)
was shut down immediately due
to a breakdown in communica-tion,
so this meeting was a way to
open the lines ofcommunication."
Although Shannon ex-pressed
doubt as to whether or not
the system would be reinstated,
he said both parties are willing to
compromise to alleviate hostili-ties
at the beach.
It was agreed that students
must take a more active stance at
the beach and should be pro-ac-tive
in attempts to soothe rela-tions.
Now, according to Shan-non,
they just have to hammer out
the details.
Sullivan told The Con-necticut
Post, "This time we're
going to work out the detail coop-eratively."
The two plan to meet
sometime next week to come up
with a solid proposal.
Reporter Digs For
Dirt At Beach
Lynn Marchetti
Staff Writer
As if national television
wasn'tenough, now theNew York
Times wants a piece of the action
too. The memory of Fairfield
University students being shown
on ABC news as raunchy drink-ers
should still be fresh in
everyone's mind. It was a highly
embarrassing moment for the
University last spring and it
seems as though The New York
Times wants a piece of the action
now.
On several days during
the week of October 12, two
freelance journalists working for
The Times came knocking on the
doors of various student beach
houses.
Senior beach resident
Kate Reilly was approached as
she left her house. The reporter
immediately mentioned The
Times and asked if she would
like to be quoted in an article
about the tensions at the beach.
"He made it sound as if the focus
of the article was the beach situ-ation
but what he was looking for
was if we were housing any
illegals," she said, "He believed
that there were more than four
people living in my house and he
wouldn'tbelieveotherwise."The
reporter asked to be let into the
house and seemed preoccupied
by looking through the house,
not interviewing the students. "I
should've turned him away from
the start," said Reilly.
Reilly said he repeatedly
asked her if she lived there. "That
was a real invasion of privacy. I
was walking out ofmy house and
he almost tried to accuse me of
not living there," she said,
(continued to p. 2)
Halloween: From Pagans To Pumpkins
Dana Felmlee
Features Editor
If you went to parochial
grade school, you already know
that Halloween, or All Hallow's
Eve, is the celebration of the eve
of All Saints' Day, the feast of the
dead. But did you know that
Halloween has deeper pagan roots
than Christian? And that the Night
of the Dead was a powerful and
significant celebration to our Ger-manic
ancestors.
In ancient Britain and Ire-land,
the Celtic festival ofSambain
was observed on October 31, at
the end of the summer. This date
was also the eve of the new year in
both Celtic and Anglo-Saxon
times and was the occasion for
one of the the ancient fire festivals
when huge bonfires were set on
hilltops to frighten away evil spir-its.
The date was connected with
the return of herds from pasture,
and laws and land tenures were
renewed.
The souls of the dead were
supposed to visit their homes on
this day, and the autumnal festi-val
acquired sinister significance,
with ghosts, witches, hobgoblins,
black cats, fairies, and demons of
all kinds said to be roaming about.
It was the time to placate the su-pernatural
powers controlling the
processes of nature.
Halloween was also thought
to be the most favorable time for
SPIN DOCTORS IN CONCERT - The musical group Spin Doctors performed
to a sold-out Alumni Hall last Friday to kick off Harvest Weekend, photo: K. Guteri
divinations concerning marriage,
luck, health, and death. It was the
only day on which the help of the
devil was invoked for such pur-poses.
A collection of Maryland
folklore states that if you, "...run
around the square with yourmouth
full of pins and needles. Come
home and look in the glass, and
you will see your future husband,
if you are to be married; but if not
you will see a coffin."
The pagan observances in-fluenced
the Christian festival of
All Hallows' Eve, celebrated on
the same date. Gradually, Hal-loween
became a secular obser-vance,
and many customs and
practices developed. Today most
ofthe customs we practice arejust
for fun, and this is how some of
these customs got started.
In Scotland, young people
assembled for games to ascertain
which of them would marry.
Apple bobbing games and
chestnut roasting traditions de-rived
from games such as these.
For instance apple bobbing in a
tub of water used to be done with
apples labeled with boys names.
The apple the girl succeeded in
catching with her teeth would
denote the boy she would marry.
The same is true for the apples
suspended from a doorway game,
the one a girl bites will be her
future husband.
Maryland folklore states:
"Put three chestnuts on ahot stove.
Nam§ one for yourself and the
others for two men. If one jumps
and bursts, that lover will be un-faithful;
if one blazes or burns,
that one loves the girl. If the girl's
nut blazes at the same time, they
will be married before the next
Halloween." This folklore also
suggests group chestnutting. The
person finding the first burr will
be the first to marry. If the bun-opens
easily the love will not last
long, but if the burr is hard to open
the love will last.
Immigrants to the US, par-ticularly
the Irish, introduced secu-lar
Halloween customs that be-came
popular in the late 19th cen-tury.
Mischief making on this
occasion by boys and young men
included overturning sheds and
outhouses and breaking windows.
In later years, the occasion has
come to be obvserved mainly by
small children, who go from house
to house, often in costume de-manding
"trick or treat". The
rhyme Trick or Treat, Smell my
feet, Give me something good to
eat, reportedly is another Irish
import.
The Jack 'O Lantern is a
carved demonic face carved to
symbollize a night watchman over
homes. In Scotland a turnip was
used but the native pumpkin was
subsittuted in the United States.
Halloween is one of the
best holidays we have for just
having a great time. Get a great
costume together, go beg for candy
(It's better than Seiler's) Read
"Where the Wild Things Are" and
make this Halloween one of the
best ever!
SAT Scammer
Gets Six
Months in
Slammer
page 3
Most of this
Guard's Pa-tients
are
Stiffs
page 5
(
Election Day
' 92 Long
Overdue
page 13
Dracula
Gives Fangs
to his Fans
page 15
Women's
Tennis Team
Nets Record
page 20