DECEMBER 2024
From The Editor
Harley Lorenzo Wood
It’s amazing to think that as you gear up to light sparklers on New Year’s Eve, someone a hundred years ago was doing exactly the same. Something as simple as that is just a tradition that had to have begun at some point in history.
The same way your family might’ve decided one year that you’ll go camping for Christmas, and it’s become tradition every year to do the same.
Every person has their own traditions. These could be old or new, tied to a group of friends, cultural practices, family history or even your own solo customs. They’re things that might’ve been passed down through generations, or things that you’re just starting now and will pass on to the people that come after you. We all have them, and they’re all special in their own way.
I like to think that traditions are stories that can tell us more about the people who came before us, and that making your own traditions is just as important as looking back upon old ones. I hope that this festive season, you’re able to enjoy the traditions that are dear to you, and that maybe you’ll even start some new ones.
Until next time,
The Universal Team
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The City of Kingston proudly acknowledges the Bunurong People of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of this land, and we pay our respect to their Elders, past and present and emerging.
Council acknowledges the Bunurong’s continuing relationship to the land and waterways and respects that their connection and spiritual identity is maintained through ancient ceremonies, songlines, dance, art and living culture.
Council pays tribute to the invaluable contributions of the Bunurong and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island elders who have guided and continue to guide the work we do.
Cover Design by Phoebe Gallagher
The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views, values and official position of the City of Kingston or any of its officials, representatives or employees
Kingston Youth Services and the Universal team acknowledge the support of the Victorian Government
Patron of Sailors Comic by Terry Loxou
Words and illustrations by Sofia Nikitina
Colouring page by Phoebe Gallagher
Soon? Words by Anne Liu, design by Phoebe Gallagher
From its humble beginnings as the Kingston Youth Services Supplement (KYSS) in 2004, Universal Magazine has been showcasing the creative work of young people for 20 years now. From fantastic illustrations, to captivating stories, comics, poems, and so much more, Universal has a tradition of keeping young people creative!
KYSS was rebranded in 2016, when the Universal we know and love first appeared. All editions since then, available to read online! And plenty more to come.
Defrosted Mariah Carey
Artwork by Caleb Chu
Have you ever watched ‘Coco’, or ‘The Book of Life’ or even the 2015 James Bond movie ‘Spectre’? Chances are, you’ve probably paid plenty of attention to the vibrant colours, flowers, skulls and music that encompasses the wonderful festival of Día de (los) Muertos.
Día de Muertos, also known as the Day of the Dead, is a Mexican holiday traditionally celebrated from November 1st to November 2nd, celebrating life, death, family and everything in between!
It is believed that from the 31st of October to the 2nd of November, the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead thins, allowing the spirits to cross into the human realm and reunite with their loved ones for a day.
The sole purpose of Día de Muertos is to celebrate and mourn those who have passed away. This is done by setting up altars at home called ofrendas which serve to commemorate the deceased, as well as permit them to enter the human realm and see their family. A traditional altar must have:
! The four elements - the Aztecs believed that everything in the world is connected by the elements; water, fire, air and earth. Incorporating an aspect of each of these elements in the ofrenda creates a balanced altar that welcomes and strengthens the spirits in various ways. We’ll discuss these aspects later.
! Marigolds – Marigolds, or cempasúchil in Aztec Nahuatl, are crucial to a proper ofrenda. Also known as flor de muertos (“flower of the dead”), they are iconic for their strong, musky scent and vibrant yellow colour, which assists the spirits in finding their way. Paired with the right candles, they light up a path for souls to find their way out of the spiritual realm and to their relatives.
! A picture of the deceased person - the soul cannot cross over to the human world without a picture of them displayed. It attracts their soul to the ofrenda and also reminds the family of their existence - it’s never nice to be forgotten!
! Sugar skulls, or calaveras - calaveras are an essential part of an ofrenda and also serve to commemorate the loved one with a uniquely customised sugar skull. These small, skullshaped clumps of sugar are considered more of a folk art than a food, despite their sole ingredient. The name of the deceased is written in icing on the skull and carefully decorated in a way that best embodies the spirit of the family member - commonly with icing, sequins, foil, feathers and beads. These skulls adorn the altar and make it a sweet, cheerful place for the spirits to visit.
words and illustrations by Sofia Nikitina
Marigolds are placed by the entrance of a house and form a pathway leading to the altar, also being used to decorate the altar itself. Sometimes, they’re woven into elaborate garlands or archways which serve as a doorway for the spirits. They can also be humbly assembled in vases, or placed on the table - as long as they’re there!
Earth – Food
Creating a balanced ofrenda means using all four elements. Let’s take a look at what’s used to represent each.
No ofrenda is complete without offerings of food! These might include:
! Pan de muerto: translates to “bread of the dead”. A sweet bread, shaped into bones on top, and sprinkled with sugar. This is an absolute must on Día de Muertos, as it nourishes both the dead and the living. Traditionally, pan de muertos are empty, but cajeta, dulce de leche, chocolate, cream, and cheese fillings are common.
! Tamales: a very iconic, yet time consuming dish to prepare - where meat and cheese are wrapped up in corn husks and steamed. Even with a whole family making them, a large batch of tamales can take a whole day to make. Yet, it’s this lengthy process that allows the family to laugh, talk and share stories with each other.
! Pozole: a thick, hearty, and smoky soup containing chilli, corn, spices and meat. This comforting food is served with condiments such as coriander, lime juice, onions, avocado, oregano powder and tostadas (tortillas).
Fire – Candles
Each soul is represented by a lit candle. Along with the marigolds, they light up a pathway for souls, similar to a torch. Candles are typically white or yellow, but are sometimes coloured depending on the families’ traditions, or the personality of their loved one. For instance; someone who was well known for their outgoing and cheerful personality might be honoured with blue, pink and orange candles.
Water – Just water
A symbol of purification, a pitcher or glass of water is left on the altar for the spirits to quench their thirst, similar to how food is also given to nourish them after their long journey. It’s also a good idea to offer whatever drink the person enjoyed, be that tequila, milk or Coca Cola.
Air – Papel Picado
Literally translating to “punched paper”, papel picados are colourful banners made of paper, with chiselled-in designs that are hung around the altar and seen pretty much everywhere throughout Día de Muertos. As these banners slightly move with the breeze, it’s thought to show that the spirits are nearby, breathing and moving around.
words and design by
Harley Lorenzo Wood
Growing up Filipino in Australia, it’s at times hard to connect with the culture my family overseas grew up with.
Thankfully, I’m able to keep that connection alive through the wonderful traditions I share with my family both in the Philippines, and now here in Australia too.
There are so many to share, but these are some of my favourites.
FOUR-MONTH CHRISTMAS SWEET SPAGHETTI ON YOUR BIRTHDAY
No matter where we are, it’s things like these that will always bring us together.
If you’re in the Philippines between the months of September and January, you will most certainly experience four-month Christmas. Shopping malls, homes, and public spaces will often have their decorations up as early as September to spread the Christmas cheer. It might be a December holiday for you, but for Filipinos it begins 100 days before the date - as soon as the months start ending in -ber. I have many memories of decorating for Christmas with my family, both here in Australia and in the Philippines too. While I’m personally not so eager as to have the tree up in September, I definitely remember being ready for Christmas a lot earlier than my schoolmates. I think the longer period just makes for even more excitement!
I’m not too sure if this is a universal Filipino tradition, or just my family, but whenever we celebrate a birthday there is always spaghetti. Italian readers might hate this next part, but it’s not your regular spaghetti bolognese, it’s sweet-style Filipino spaghetti instead. The kind you’d now find at Jollibee - a popular fast-food chain in the Philippines, where the sauce is sweet. The recipe includes cheese, hot dogs, and banana ketchup - an innovation utilising the abundance of bananas, since tomatoes don’t grow well there. I’ve always been told to eat long food (i.e. pasta and noodles) on my birthdays to symbolise long life, and I can’t remember a single birthday where I haven’t eaten spaghetti or noodles.
KARAOKE AT HOME
Home karaoke systems (videoke) are abundant in the Philippines. If you go to the appliance section of any department store, there’s a high chance you’ll catch the retail staff hitting high notes on a demo videoke machine. We love a good time, and it wouldn’t be that without the chance to belt out Céline Dion’s My Heart Will Go On, or Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You. Many family parties of mine have gone on into the night, with at least one uncle still standing (singing his heart out to 80s and 90s classics) at two in the morning. We all have our favourite videoke songs, my mum’s is Zombie by The Cranberries, which I’ll always duet with her, ABBA’s Dancing Queen is always popular, and a few of my cousins are impartial to Creep by Radiohead.
ROUND FRUITS FOR THE NEW YEAR
I have the same experience every year, it’s New Year’s Eve and my mum shouts out, ‘we need fruits!’. More specifically, twelve of them, and they must be round! Setting out 12 round fruits (one for each month) encourages abundance and prosperity for the upcoming year. There’s much debate in my family as to what actually constitutes a round fruit, and if we only need 12 fruits, or if it’s 13 for better luck. Of course there’s the obvious; oranges, and melons are both round - but what about pears? Are pears considered round - or not? Do they need to be spherical? Do bananas count as round for their rounded, bendy shape? No one ever knows, and there’ll always be someone who vetoes your fruit, saying ‘that’s not round!’.
SHARING FOOD IS CARING
Food is important in many cultures around the world. It brings people together, and gives you a chance to share in something wonderful. This is no different for us. We love food. We love sharing it, cooking it, and of course, eating it too. Any family event calls for some serious time spent cooking in the kitchen. We all have our specialty dishes. My great-aunt always brings empanadas, my sister cooks spaghetti and from me, it’s leche flan - a caramel flan that began as my mother’s recipe. She’s since passed that responsibility on to me, and after years of practice, I’ve tweaked the recipe to make it my own specialty. We all know that after any party there’ll be plenty of leftovers to take home tooand no one’s ever allowed to leave empty-handed!
it had been years since we talked. we saw each other said a few words then the good old let’s catch up soon let’s talk soon. surprisingly we started speaking a little chatting laughing sharing missed moments learning about each other again. hours on end forget the deadlines I have tomorrow before I knew it midnight rang true so we said talk soon!
my heart raced whenever my phone beeped excited beyond words to hear what you had to say. I unsuccessfully try to hide the time but you realise and tell me to sleep I ask talk soon? you smile and say always.
then the days drift by
words by Anne Liu design by Phoebe Gallagher
and commitments pervade our lives a lingering silence seeped into the stream of conversation and we struggled to keep up. slowly but surely we weren’t really talking nothing to say or too busy perhaps.
now it’s been a good while I still can’t scrub your memory from my mind. when you said you’d support me, did you mean from afar? when you said I’d do just fine, did you mean on my own? when you said we’d talk soon, what did you mean?
it’s been some time longer I think of you less often, just sometimes when I stumble across reminiscent subtleties of certain colours. realising now we are simply two worlds apart the ruby red string tangled into knots; but still, I hope maybe we can talk soon.
This poem describes the experience of seeing someone special after a long time apart, and the exciting journey of reconnection, before the imminent pressures of everyday life tear the two away once again, leaving them wondering if they will ‘talk soon’ someday. It speaks of their tradition where they ask to ‘talk soon’ as a sign of their willingness to mend their relationship, which ends tragically when ‘soon’ translates to an immeasurable amount of time. The ending is of a cyclical nature, reflecting their desire to talk again ironically after they just missed their chance. It raises the question, could they ever make it work?
scrooge through the ages
A CHRISTMAS CAROL ADAPTATIONS FROM THE PAST AND PRESENT
Over 130 years ago, a man named Charles Dickens created the most revolutionary and influential Christmas story of all time. He called it “A Christmas Carol”. Since then, over 100 different movie adaptations have been created, and with that comes 100 different Ebenezer Scrooges. Regardless of which movie you happen to be seeing, this timeless tale manages to weave its way into a new rendition every other year, making it a longstanding classic to pop on the TV the second November 1st rolls around. To know the differences between tales, however, you first have to know the original story. Let’s take a look at the original 1843 classic, followed by two adaptations that offer their own unique twists, including substituting characters for assorted puppets.
a christmas carol
WRITTEN BY CHARLES DICKENS 1843
It all starts in London, where we meet our main man - Ebenezer Scrooge. We soon know Scrooge here to be the human embodiment of a wet blanket. I mean, you could suppose he had good reason, seeing as his name is Ebenezer Scrooge. Not to mention the opening line to A Christmas Carol reads as follows: “Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.
The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it.” So Marley is dead. Marley, if you were wondering, was Scrooge’s past coworker and business partner in their investment banking company. Anyways, Scrooge is not the kind of guy you want to be friends with. Or have as your uncle, apparently, seeing as one of the first pieces of dialogue we hear from Scrooge comes from advising Fred (the unfortunate nephew) to “be boiled with his own pudding, and (be) buried with a stake of holly through his heart.” Despite being told this, Fred — who is clearly stronger willed than I am — invites
Photograph: Disney/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar
WORDS AND DESIGN BY ALANA CHU
Scrooge to a Christmas party over at his place. Of course, Scrooge declines, and we are introduced to Scrooge’s store clerk, a poor guy by the name of Bob Cratchit, “with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas.” Bob here then shows Fred out, and in turn (much to Scrooge’s dismay) allows two gentlemen into the office. These two ask Scrooge to spare a couple of his hard earned coins to donate to the sick and poor. Scrooge you guessed it declines.
Well anyways, we’ve pretty much figured out all we need to know about this guy in the first couple pages, so if we skim ahead to the end of the first chapter, Scrooge has gone home, back to his place after a hard day’s work of being a hater. Just as Scrooge is settling in for the night, Marley’s ghost appears, bursts through his cellar door in all his ghostly glory, and covered in chains and padlocks wrapped around his torso. Marley essentially warns Scrooge of what’s to come three spirits. According to Marley, all Scrooge needs to do to avoid getting all chained up in the afterlife like him is to have a good talk with these three, and he’ll be set. If you have any questions, you don’t get the answers, because Marley disappears straight after dropping this bombshell on Scrooge.
You probably know the deal from here, but in case you don’t, I’ll summarise: Scrooge is visited by three Christmas Spirits; The Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present, and The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (that last one is a mouthful, I know). These three ghosts show Scrooge what it’s like to be kind and generous some by showing him an eternal and painful afterlife and Scrooge becomes a better human being; attending his nephew’s Christmas party and helping out the Cratchit family, sending them a nice big turkey.
This classic Dickens tale is a key source material for Christmas traditions, scaffolding the hundreds of adaptations that came after its time. Now, we get to look at a couple of those adaptations.
the muppetchristmas carol
Now that we’ve covered the original (and rather old) A Christmas Carol, let’s look at The Muppet Christmas Carol, which is significantly less old, released in 1992. The Muppet Christmas Carol, as you may have gathered, is the original
story of Ebenezer Scrooge, retold with the Muppets. Now, The Muppet Christmas Carol is actually known to be surprisingly close to the original story in detail, apart from every character, excluding Scrooge, being played by assorted puppets.
First of all, let’s take a good run through the characters and their Muppet counterparts. First off, we have Marley played by Statler and Waldorf, two frighteningly detailed elderly-men-Muppets. Bob Cratchit is played by the one and only Kermit the Frog, with Robin the Frog (Kermit’s nephew, obviously), playing Tiny Tim. All of the Christmas spirits are played by original puppets, made specifically for The Muppet Christmas Carol. Two out of the three of these puppets are the most terrifying Muppets I have ever laid my eyes upon, but we’ll ignore that for now.
Photograph: Disney Plus Press
The first major change we see in The Muppet Christmas Carol is that the movie opens with
Charles Dickens portrayed as the M the Great. We kno character in the Gonzo accompan narrates the story th
spirited
We are also introduced to a couple of new characters besides Gonzo/Dickens. This includes Mr. Applegate; an anxious tenant often pleading with Scrooge (played by Michael Caine) over his late mortgage payments, and Jacob Marley. Well hold on, Marley was in the original story, right? You’re right. In the Muppet version, however, Jacob Marley is split into two Muppets, Statler and Waldorf (the elderly men), who play Jacob and Robert Marley. The two of them float ominously around as ghosts, chained together and dishing out ominous warnings too.
The structure of the story remains pretty much the same, apart from the side-story of Gonzo (Charles Dickens) and Rizzo (the rat) chasing the main characters around throughout the movie, to see the story happening with their own Muppet eyes.
The Muppet Christmas Carol is a playful and comedic take on A Christmas Carol, while also maintaining the overall message of redemption, generosity, and the importance of compassion and human (or Muppet) connection.
Finally, the adaptation we’ve all been waiting for. The one with Ryan Reynolds. First off, this movie has a significantly larger number of differences than the Muppets movie did (including being a musical). Prepare yourselves, because for one thing, Our main character has been stripped of his extraordinary and somewhat questionable name. Fear not! Ebenezer Scrooge (played by Will Ferrell) is still around, but now, he too is a ghost. Scrooge has taken over the job of the last Ghost of Christmas Present (who was long due for retirement), and is now in a team with our two other ghosts, as well as countless other afterlife spirits, all working in a big corporation, with a unified goal to redeem one evil human soul each Christmas.
This year, Scrooge tries convincing his team to try and transform one particular human, whose soul is so evil and cruel, he’s been labelled as “unredeemable”. Meet Clint Briggs – our new main character, a man with a one-syllable first name dressed in a tuxedo. Nothing like what we’ve known in our past two stories. Clint Briggs is a prominent and controversial media consultant, who is known for ruining reputations when he deems it necessary. Scrooge is convinced that if his team of ghosts can change Clint, it will cause a ripple effect and become a
Photograph: Apple TV
p . Begrudgingly, the other ghosts agree, and begin their one-year scavenge for information to optimise their chances of persuading Clint to make a change for the better.
As Christmas approaches and the ghosts are preparing for their annual haunt, they drop into Clint’s life to supervise, and find him talking to his eight-year-old niece (Wren) in his big, fancy penthouse office. We learn that Wren is running for class president at her school, and the three ghosts happen to walk in at the very moment that Clint is convincing her to post an unflattering video of her competing candidate to get an upper hand.
Eventually Christmas Eve rolls around, and Jacob Marley appears to Clint, and starts his musical number: The Story of Your Life.
Unfortunately for Marley, Clint’s not a fan of the lovely production, interrupting multiple times, and we get our first fourth-wall break:
“You said, “Past, present, future.” Like A Christmas Carol? The Dickens story?”
“Yes, yes. Like the Dickens book and the Bill Murray movie and every other adaptation nobody asked for. Now, please, if you would just let me get this out. Sit.”
After a series of interjections from Clint, Marley finally delivers his exasperated warning of the three ghosts, and disappears, dragging his rusted chains with him. So here we go, we know the story by now. The Ghost of Christmas Past shows Clint his past, and so on. Except, unfortunately for us, Clint somehow manages to seduce the spirit, forcing the Ghost of Christmas Present to step in. We learn of how Clint’s relationships have fallen apart due to his selfishness and greed, much like the original story. However, after seeing that Clint cares very little about what he’s being shown, Present tells Clint that once, he too was bitter and cruel towards the world, and confesses that apart from Clint, Present was the only unredeemable soul to pass through the soulredemption system.
And with that, Clint reflects on his character and becomes a positive change in the world for less than a day. Only a couple of hours into his new-found life of generosity, Clint dramatically jumps in front of a bus, becoming the new Ghost of Christmas Present, going on to redeem hundreds of human souls.
Spirited is a non-traditional take on the original A Christmas Carol published 179 years prior. Showing Scrooge in a more positive light as the Ghost of Christmas Present, and focusing on the afterlife’s comedic company involved in redeeming human souls, this movie is a fun and witty watch, retaining the original themes while working around a modern backdrop.
Photograph: The Dickens Project
Photograph: Apple TV
Photograph: Disney Plus Press
What Should I Bring With Me?
words by Shauna Leung, design by Phoebe Gallagher
Out you pop, bright-eyed and curious, absorbing all the light of the world. You play with the other kids in the sand pit. You see how they move their hands –cupping the grains and making piles of misshapen blobs. You copy them.
Off to school, you go. ‘Quiet when I’m speaking!’ The teacher roars. You seal your lips, but let out a giggle to your friend after the teacher turns their back. The bell rings. You pile your array of Smiggle stationery into your tub, shoving the handwriting book on top of the mess. You run out the door, and off into the playground where tanbark softens the blow of you falling off the monkey bars.
Your mum picks you up from school.
‘How was your day, sweetie?’ She asks.
‘Fine,’ you reply.
It’s an exchange you and your mother play out every day for as long as you can remember. At the dinner table, your father does the same. He wears a drawn-out look on his face as he cuts his steak, one that reads, ‘I am working 40 hours at a firm I don’t care about’. Of course, you don’t know this at the time. You sense it has something to do with your mother, who always seems nervous about her cooking. You carry this nervousness into school. Making friends is scary – you laugh at all the wrong times. ‘Why are you such a loser?’ Says the voice inside your head. Sometimes, it takes all your energy just to say ‘here’ when the teacher calls your name.
Your family stops having dinner together at the table. You can’t pinpoint exactly when it started – sometime in between when your dad bought a motorcycle and when your mum started wearing make-up, even to the grocery store. They stop sleeping in the same room.
The tests get harder, and the voice gets louder. ‘Why can’t you do anything?’
‘Because you’re stupid, that’s why.’ ‘No one even likes you.’ Thinking of school starts to make you feel like your heart is going to drop out of your chest. Eventually, you stop going altogether.
You sit in your bed and scroll on your phone – post after post, reel after reel. The days go by like this. It feels endless, like an inescapable vortex is consuming every facet of your life. You feel like you are losing your mind.
Five years pass. Somehow, you’ve made it out alive.
More than alive, you actually feel… happiness. There is hope that is instilled in you after surviving the hopelessness that gripped you so tightly. In every act of kindness people showed you, in every act of love you showed yourself, you found the light in life again.
The voice in your head still speaks to you sometimes. It wants to pull you back into the darkness - convince you that you are destined for nothing. It feeds on your fear; that brokenness, passed down through the generations, is your legacy.
But there’s another voice now, a stronger voice. It whispers from your heart:
‘I see you; I love you, and you’re going to be okay.’
There’s a tradition in old English folklore that says you must salute a magpie or else you’ll be cursed with bad luck. Some insist you should say “good afternoon Mr Magpie!”, others say you must repeat “hello Mr Magpie!” three times, whilst some argue you must say “good afternoon, General!”. This superstitious tradition stems from the belief that magpies are evil creatures, although that is probably only due to their habit of stealing shiny objects…
Although the tradition is rooted in English folklore where the Eurasian magpie resides, illustrated above is Gymnorhina tibicen, the humble Australian magpie.
source: https://www.birdspot.co.uk/culture/magpies-and-superstition
Use the following pages to cut up and make paper chains!
