VOL. N No. 4 The XGl's Fi by Fred Prouser Take a cold, dark Saturday night; a band, plenty of beer and a horde of party-starved Capitol Campus students and what you have is the first XGI keggar of the school year. A keggar is part of the college experience. It is an excuse to get drunk, high or both, depending on your in clination. The sign at the door listed admission prices. Couples got in cheaper, but the majority of the crowd, both male and female, went stag. There was music provided by "Mad Hatter", a rather motley looking group with a lead singer emulating Elton John. They were very tolerant towards the end of the evening when two inebriated souls joined them on the platform for part of a set. Other bits of assorted madness occurred throughout the evening such as dancing on tables, the breaking of a window and the standard booze raffle. The lucky winners in this raffle, upon receiving their bottle of cold duck or whiskey, are urged to chug their newly won prize by the assembled drunken horde. The winners usually oblige, although a few do refuse. Tables were provided to sit and sip as many did that night. No estimate of the amount of beer consumed Saturday night was available at this writing. For those who liked to eat while they drank, peanuts were provided at each table. The only trouble was that they were still in their shells and as the evening wore on, coordination became a problem for many would be peanut eaters. The keggar was a success by all means. Its purpose, a good time for all and hangovers for many, will come again at the next Saturday night beer blast out in the sticks. Just one suggestion, label the white fence for the next keggar. Thanks. More pictures, another story on page 7 Halloween by Jim Bollinger Thursday, October 31 is Halloween. Halloween is widely known for its witches, ghosts and other assorted spookies which occupy the minds of men (and women) at this time of year. This being the case, we on the Reader staff endeavored to bring to you, our readers, an authoritative word on the meaning of Halloween. With that in mind, we arranged an interview with a leading authority of the Occult Arts & Sciences, Dr. Victor B. Acula, professor of Sociology at the University of Transylvania, Romania, who was visiting this country on a sabbatical. Prof. Acula began our in terview by telling of the origins of Halloween. Surprisingly, this custom had its beginnings not in the dark wooded mountains of Eastern Europe, but instead, originated in the British isles. It started out as a Celtic festival COM memmorating the end of summer. Its first connection with things- that- go- bump. in the- night was merely with divination rights and the belief that this was the time of year that the souls of the dead returned home. As time went on, the supernatural significance increased as the tribes soon started using the festival as the time of the year to placate the evil in nature during the time before the darkest season of the year. Soon, it became common practice on Halloween to invoke the help of the devil to get a mate. Several practices developed that were supposed to help a young person ascertain who their husbands and wives would be. In Ireland, the custom had much more serious import. It was celebrated only once every three years, but then it lasted for two weeks and involved sacrifices to gods and taxes for any fires left burning on that day. In later ages, many of the once-revered Halloween practices became games for children, and it became a time for mischief. Mischief-making C. C. READER The assembled drunken horde at XGI Keggar The aftermath: stale beer and peanut shells as a Halloween celebration became extremely popular near the end of the last cen tury, when overturned outhouses and broken windows were common Halloween pr ti pointed out that the "civilizing" of America probably accounts for the toning-down of Halloween tricks. It is his personal opinion that the Halloween "treat" evolved as a real alternative to actual destructive mischief, which some enterprising young imp came up• with somewhere along the line. The custom gained rapidly in popularity and soon became common Genesis practice. Acula traces the super natural significance of Halloween to its very early beginnings and its tenuous relationship with the dead. He hypothesizes that Satanists soon picked up Halloween as an ideal time to celebrate the devil, being the eve of the Christian All-Saints Day, when the ancient holy men were honored. The peasantry of those days frightened easily, and Halloween in the Middle Ages became a time when evil and dead spirits walked the earth searching for men to possess and destroy. "Of course", the Doctor concluded "those days are long gone, and the people of today know better than to believe in childish super stition". With that, Dr. Acula said his good-byes, flapped his leathery wings and was off to his next destination. Photo by Gibboney OCTOBER 25, 1974 SGA Financial Woes by Doug Gibboney Capitol Campus student organizations face curtailed programs if a Student Government Association request for an additif:rial $3,000 of University funds is not granted. The SGA hoped to receive the additional funds in February to ease the strain of unusually tight budgets among some of the student groups. That request may not be granted due to increased campus energy costs, according to SGA President Mike McAllister. The campus is being forced to switch from gas heat to more expensive oil heat. Despite conservation measures, the change may cost three times the old rate with the increase being paid for by funds that could have gone to the student organizations. Director of Student Affairs James South said that "while these organizations have high priority...if it com(-:, down to keeping warm or funding these groups, we'll keep warm." A controversial University regulation banning food sales and raffles could add to the organizations' money problems. The regulation, which has been suspended pending review by University President Oswald, means bake sales, like those sponsored last year by the Black Student Union, and raffles, like those of Beta Chi, would be outlawed. A prime cause of this year's tight budget is the lack of an encumbrance fund to pay off debts from the previous year. With the prospect of no new funds coming in, SGA Treasurer Jay Wren says there is a strong likelihood that "what is budgeted is what each organization will get," One group that will have difficulty staying within that budget is the C.C. Reader. The newspaper has been allocated $3,000 - a drop of $l,OOO from the previous year - to print twice as many issues as last year. Business manager Ken Hession hopes to make up some of the deficit with ad vertisine revenue. The situation for all student groups was summed up by Jay Wren: "No way are we going to go bankrupt but we might be hurting for cash." ATTENTION ALL STUDENTS! Do you have an interest in your school? If your answer is yes, then this is for you. By offering 2 or 3 hours of your time each week, you could be a justice of student court. We drastically need JUNIORS and SENIORS who reside in the dorms or Meade Heights. If in terested, please submit your name to the SGA President, Vice-President, or the Student Affairs Office (W -103) • I ur over: Cancer House by P.R.J. Smith
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