Fun/interesting Kappa Holidy info!
I got this yesterday from our PDA - thought it was kind of neat!
sorry it's so big, I had to copy and paste from a Word doc
Historically Speaking………
Kay Smith Larson, History Chairman 2002-2004 December 2003
As we enjoy the various holidays, do we know how early Kappas celebrated these special days? As we know, the information we have from our earliest days has been learned from letters of our Founders rather than official records so we are limited in what we know about how holidays were observed.
Early Kappas were concerned with academics, scholarship and what their responsibilities should be as “new women” enjoying the privileges of fraternal life. Chapters held social activities, such as receptions, but tended to keep a low profile in light of the feeling among some institutions and faculty that fraternal groups constituted a “schism” or “caste system” among students.
Alice Pillsbury, Monmouth College, remembered a delightful Halloween supper in Founder Louise Stevenson’s home. “The Kappas were seated at a long table set with exquisite linen and silver. Every alternate place was left vacant for an expected ghostly visitor. At midnight the doors were opened to the darkness outside – unlit by street lamps or lights from any kind of vehicle. Shadowy white figures entered and took the empty chairs. When they removed the sheets from over their heads, they were recognized, to the girls’ great relief, as their boyfriends. Mrs. Stevenson had secretly invited them, and the conspiracy had not been revealed.” History has recorded this first social, a rather rollicking Halloween Party and still another fortune-telling event at midnight in the local cemetery.
Delta Chapter, Indiana University, celebrated Thanksgiving in 1925 with a housewarming for its new chapter house, “a new castle.” One of the traditions of this chapter was a lovely “Snowball Formal” at the end of Christmas vacation. The “Snowball Formal” was the most elaborate, and always followed the same decorative scheme, the reception hall dripping with silver icicles and just inside the door, a huge snowball which is shattered during the evening to release myriads of tiny snowballs with which the dancers pelted one another.
There was some visiting between chapters, such as Lambda’s, Akron University, visit one year to Beta Gamma, Wooster College, for Thanksgiving dinner, a reception and sleigh ride. But the Wooster faculty refused to let Beta Gamma women reciprocate by traveling to Lambda in Akron.
Our early chapters held various Christmas events. Starting in Epsilon Chapter, Illinois Wesleyan, chapters held Christmas parties when gifts were made to local charities or to their chapter house. This tradition continues today in many of our chapters. On Christmas Eve 1883, a banquet in honor of Kappa Chapter, Hillsdale College, was given at a local hotel by the Hillsdale Chapter of Phi Delta Theta. This aroused anew the anti-fraternity activity of certain members of the faculty. Some of the more ardent fraternity members were forced to leave school in consequence, and the Kappa chapter was also under the ban for a time. Fortunately not all holiday activities resulted in such drastic repercussions.
Minnie Stewart’s home in Monmouth, Ill., is decorated for Christmas today and the Alumnae Association holds an annual Christmas Brunch there. The Stewart House Committee participates in the "Festival of Trees." They bought and decorated a lighted wreath. The public "votes" for the wreaths and trees on display by buying a dollar vote and people bid in a silent auction to purchase the decorated items. These will be on display through the Monmouth Christmas Walk in December. Proceeds from the sales go to a local charity of the sponsor's choice. If you’re in the vicinity, please visit The Stewart House. Who knows, Minnie and her friends may be there to “welcome” you.
When The Heritage Museum was founded in 1980 located at Fraternity Headquarters, “Celebration of Christmas Past” open houses became a Heritage Museum tradition. The rooms of the old mansion were festooned with greens and bright red bows. A 10 foot-tall tree stood before the pier mirror in the grand parlor. It was decorated in Victorian style and encircled by a collection of antique dolls and toys. Lovely old silver gleamed on the dining room table which was set for a festive holiday tea, and costumed carolers clustered around the 1887 piano. The tradition of “Celebration of Christmas Past” continues today with some variations. If you are in Columbus, Ohio, in December, please visit Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity Headquarters and The Heritage Museum as we say “Happy Holidays” to all Kappas everywhere!
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It's gonna be a hootenanny.
Or maybe a jamboree.
Or possibly even a shindig or lollapalooza.
Perhaps it'll be a hootshinpaloozaree. I don't know.
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