HIT: New Year's Symbols and other interesting info :)

["Joanne E. Ladewig" <shatz@LIGHTSIDE.COM>]

Netters:

I promptly received answers to my query on New Year's Symbols. A summary
follows (below), and also, two excerpts from A.J.'s and Sheila's responses,
which I thought you would find interesting - I did! Several others also
either thanked me for sharing the ideas or mentioned that they were also
using the "resolutions" idea in the library. One requested a read-aloud on
a New Year's resolutions there, but I had no suggestions. Is there such a
book?

(With thanks to:
Angus Saunders, A. J. Thomas, Jody Gerlock, Ruth E. Brandt, Shelia
Demetriadis)

THE GENERAL CONSENSUS IS:

The old man is "Father Time," the baby is "Baby New Year" in common use,
though not perhaps by any "official" source.

The scythe represents death, specifically that of the old year.

The plural of millenium is millenia. It is a neuter Latin word.

SOME ADDITIONAL INTERESTING INFO (2 items):

1. (from A.J. Thomas):
A figure you might want to bring in is the Roman god Janus, after whom
January is named. He has two faces, one to look backward and the other to
look forward.

Another thing you might tell them is about the names of centuries. I know
when I was young, I wanted to know why we were in the 20th century when all
the years began with 19.

You should also tell them that despite all the hype, the third millenium
begins in 2001. All zero anniversaries have to end with the same digit the
period starts out with. If someone was born in 1901, they would have been 10
in 1911, 50 in 1951, and they'll be 100 in 2001. You could have them guess
what year they'd be 2,000.

    *****     *****     *****
2. Shelia Demetriadis had this to share:*

Father Time carries a scythe because
the passing of time "harvests" souls, i.e., people die.  He is similar
to the image of death that we see carrying a scythe and an hourglass,
except that Death has no visible face while Father Time looks like he
might be someone's white-bearded grandpa.  Needless to say, the concept
of "passing time" is what connects them.

Now, the origin of this Father Time/Death imagery is in the ancient
Greek myths.  If you will remember, Cronos (the name actually means
"time" or "year" in Greek to this day) was a titan, one of the children
of Ouranos (Sky) and Gaea (Earth).  He rebelled against his father by
emasculating him using a scythe or, in some versions, a sickle.  He then
became ruler until his own son, Zeus, defeated him and became king of
the gods.  Cronos had swallowed each of his children until his wife,
Rhea, gave him a stone to swallow when Zeus was born.  Then she hid Zeus
away on Mt. Ida until he was grown and could take on Cronos.

The Romans actually started Cronos's transition from the cannibalistic
character of the ancient myth to the "Father Time" we have today.

As for the Baby New Year, I don't know what the origin of the image is,
but it sure makes for an interesting thing to research!
          ***     ***     ***     ***     ***     ***     ***
*(which I found very interesting, but decided not to use with my elementary
kids. . . how does one explain "emasculate" to a group of primary students?
Obviously, one doesn't. . . ;) ! - Not this "one" anyway! O.K., call me
chicken/prude, I'm still not goin' there!) - Joanne

For those who may have missed it, here is the original post:

Subject: TARGET: New Year's symbols names, meanings

Hi Netters:

This week I'm using a "New Year's" theme instead of a story for my primary
students. I bought an ornament from Hallmark with the old man of 1999
(numbering on a sash) holding a New Year baby with 2000 on its chest to
share with them. The old man is also holding an hourglass. I've been
explaining the concept of the old man representing the year ending (having
"grown old") and the baby representing a fresh new, "young" year. The
hourglass, of course, symbolizing the passing or measuring of time.

My question is: Do either of these characters have an "official" name? "Old
Man Time" or "New Year's Baby?" for example? And why does the old man often
appear with a scythe in his hand?

In addition to these symbols, I also brought in newspaper pictures of the
Rose Parade floats (most of our students watch the parade on T.V., quite a
few go in person, and some even helped work on the floats!). I also talked
about day, months, years, decades, centuries, and the "Big M Word" -
millennium, as well as this year being a "Leap" year.

I also shared a newspaper page featuring "Farewell, Snoopy" and why Mr.
Schultz was retiring.

Lastly, I talked about New Year's Resolutions and together we discussed
some good "Library Resolutions" - keeping books clean, using shelfmarkers,
etc. If there was time I also touched on how old books can become IF we
take good care of them - 50 years, 100 years, etc. (I also showed them some
ancient text & scrolls from the Eyewitness book "BOOK") and briefly
mentioned that some books (Dead Sea Scrolls, etc.) are about TWO
MILLENNIUMS (oops - what's the plural of millennium - millenni?) old.

Perhaps some of you might want to use the "New Year's Library Resolutions"
ideas to review your library rules at this time. Happy New Year to all!










Joanne Ladewig
Information Center Director
Fairgrove Academy - a K-8 public school focusing on
   the Visual and Performing Arts, and Technology
La Puente, CA
jladewig@ns700-1.enet.hlpusd.k12.ca.us
home email: shatz@lightside.com

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