WICK Vol.68 Iss.3

Volume 68 Issue 3

O Holy Candlelight by: Lauren Danielowski ‘14

Figure 1

For new girls, Candlelight is just one of Westover’s many mysterious traditions that have yet to be unveiled. Its mystery is also heightened by everyone’s energetic anticipation of the Christmas season and the beginning of Winter Break. While sophomores, juniors, seniors, and familiar faculty are rather well acquainted with Candlelight, it remains unknown to some as to how Candlelight at Westover first came about.

The earliest account of Westover’s Candlelight ceremony comes from an undated and unsigned letter that says the tradition of the candlelit service started one Sunday evening before Christmas Break. According to this source, “on a Sunday evening before Christmas vacation in the early days of the School, the electricity failed. Candles were brought to the chapel and the choral service was sung without organ accompaniment. The whole congregation was so impressed by the

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

In this Issue...

O Holy Candlelight......................................................1 Shop ‘Til You Drop: Black Friday...............................2 The Day to Feast: Thanksgiving..................................3 She’s Calling the Shots...............................................3 Holiday Traditions........................................................4 WICK-er of the Month...............................................5 Wick Staff.....................................................................5 JV Field Hockey............................................................6 beauty of the ceremony that it was planned another year to continue to have a candle-light service as part of the regular Christmas festivities.” Older students and faculty can attest to the truly magical ambiance the Candlelight service possesses.

Older students and faculty can attest to the truly magical ambiance the Candlelight service possesses.

Mr. Havery, Westover’s Director of Music, wrote a brief summary of the history Candlelight in May of 2002.

In this summary, he tells us that traditionally, the Glee Club used to sing a Christmas concert that was separate from Candlelight. But, once Westover switched over to the trimester system in the early 1970’s, final exams occurred right before all of Westover’s scheduled Christmas traditions, providing enormous amounts of stress on the students. To fix this problem, it was decided that the annual Service of Nine Lessons and Carols as used at King’s College in Cambridge, England. The Glee Club would be involved in Candlelight instead of Figure 2

Page 2 having their own separate concert. We even borrowed some of King’s College’s traditional Christmas concert songs. Later, in 1992 and 1993, the Dance Ensemble performances and Handbells performances were added. Following this change, some of our favorite and beloved traditional Candlelight songs were added in the following order: Carol of the Bells- 1973 In the Bleak Midwinter-1975 Once in Royal David’s City- 1984 Hodie- 1984 O Holy Night- 1996 The most touching anecdote in this summary is one pertaining to the Figure 3 traditional duet for the first verse in the cherished holiday song, In the Bleak Midwinter. It began in 1978, when “one of [the] best singers, Margot Gismondi, was given the honor of soloing on the first verse of this carol. Margot had a lovely voice and a terrible case of stage fright. During the lesson just before her solo, she looked over at [Mr. Havery], with fear in her eyes and mouthed “I can’t do it!” The girl next to her squeezed her hand and whispered, “I’ll sing with you.’ Being a good Westover singer, she sang a perfect alto to Margot’s now firm soprano part. Everyone thought it was wonderful and we’ve done it the same way ever since— without the last minute panic. Love does overcome fear.” This story truly encompasses the spirit of the Candlelight service.

Candlelight is not a platform for asserting the superiority of any one specific religion. It is not meant to offend or insult anyone’s personal spiritual beliefs.

Rather, it is a solemn ceremony that epitomizes Westover’s greatest assets: selfless love, the feeling of joy in the presence of the collective Westover community, and the honest to goodness solidarity amongst classmates and faculty.

Figure 1: A 1981 Candlelight Service. (view from the Chapel balcony) Figure 2: A beautifully decorated Chapel (circa 1960’s) complete with holly and a real Christmas tree.

Figure 3: A Candlelight program from 1982. (originally maroon and pale yellow)

December 4, 2012

Shop ‘Til You Drop: Black Friday

by: Chae Young Uhm ‘13

For ardent shoppers everywhere, Black Friday is as meaningful a holiday as Thanksgiving Day. Following Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season with tremendous discounts on products ranging from trendy sweaters from Urban Outfitters to MacBook Pros from the Mac store. Traditionally, many retailers open up at 6:00 A.M. but since the beginning of the century, more and more stores are beginning their sales as soon as the clock strikes 12:00 A.M.

This Black Friday was the first time that I have participated in the morning shopping. Taking advantage of the fact that I was staying only ten minutes away from Boston’s renowned Burlington Mall over the Thanksgiving Break, my friends and I left for the mall at 1:00 A.M. Although it was extremely late, the mall was crowded with other shoppers, various salesmen, and women promoting their stores. The place soon filled with the delightful shopping spirits of other people. Stores like Abercrombie and Fitch, Victoria’s Secret, and Forever 21 offered incredible discounts.

The most incredible discount, however, was found at Abercrombie and Fitch, a discount of 50 percent on all the merchandise in the store. Other stores like Free People and Sperry Top-Sider did not have any special sales for Black Friday. Some stores like Urban Outfitters, J. Crew, and the Mac Store did not open until 6:00 A.M.

Unaware of these differences among the stores, my friends and I ended up shopping at fewer places than we had anticipated. While we did buy many clothes, we learned that in order to have the most efficient deals, it is essential to research beforehand the store hours and the special discounts being offered. In addition, we have also learned the hard way that it is extremely difficult to function the next day after having shopped from 1:00 A.M. till 6:00 A.M. Therefore, for all the shoppers out there, here’s a little Black Friday tip: Be sure to leave the entire next day available for you to recover from the shopping frenzy!

December 4, 2012

Kate Calls the Shots by: Andie Dahl ‘14

With the loss of former squash coaches JP Burlington and Meg North, the Westover squash program was in desperate need for a passionate, encouraging coach to lead the teams to victory and improvement.

Kate Wymard is the ideal person to fulfill this role.

Who better to coach the varsity and junior varsity teams than someone with twelve years of experience playing and a love for the sport?

What sparked Kate’s love for squash is the intensity of the sport, the release of stress, and the interactions with other players. Kate grew up playing tennis and decided to try squash since it “looked like a faster sport and would be fun.” Kate is the perfect example that any small interest for squash could spark a life-long love for the sport. She found squash as a relief from daily stress because squash involves many ...continued on page 5

The Day to Feast: Thanksgiving by: Stephanie Sorosiak ‘13

Many people outside of the U.S. are aware of this day of eating and sharing thanks, but many do not have the best understanding of what actually happens.

Thanksgiving is truly a festive holiday in which family and friends spend a day indulging in foods until we are about to burst. Whether this day is something special to you, or is just a day of eating, here’s a brief history of this dinner. Thanksgiving started off in the 1600s when English immigrants boarded their ship The Mayflower and set off for the Americas. The feast they shared with the Indians is what is considered ‘Thanksgiving’. However their meal most likely did not consist of turkey, but rather foods that the settlers and Indians already possessed. This could be deer, other types of birds, fruits, nuts, and corn. As our country developed, we kept this holiday as a commemorative day to give thanks and to spend time with those close. But some things have changed...

According to edudemic.com, almost 248 million turkeys are raised in the U.S. each year. And eighty-eight percent of people agreed that turkey is consumed on Thanksgiving Day. Along with hundreds

Page 3 of pounds of potatoes and beans, Americans eat for hours. For some, preparation for this day begins days beforehand. Brining a turkey, depending on its weight, can take hours. And then with all the pies and cakes--pumpkin being the most popular--you could find yourself in the kitchen for longer than imagined. Needless to say, this preparation is not always the way to go.

Vegetarian families, for example, can eat a substitute called “Tofurkey”, a tofu based loaf or casserole with grains, herbs and spices; equally as delicious, just designed for those who don’t enjoy the big bird!

Depending on the family’s background, a “traditional” American Thanksgiving isn’t as popular.

In my family, it was considered strange for many years to have a turkey. Coming from a strong Greek background, I was exposed to Greek foods on this day: Dolmathakia (stuffed grape leaves), Pastitsio (meat casserole), Yesmista (stuffed tomatoes and peppers), and Fasolakia (green beans in tomato sauce), which are only some of the options that lingered around. Many families add their own flare to what gets passed around the table, whether it be from their ethnicity or just their preference. In my immediate family, we prefer sweet potatoes over Yukon Gold potatoes, steamed green beans over casserole, and pumpkin pie over pecan.

In the end, Thanksgiving Day really depends on how your family and friends want to spend it. With the addition of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, football, and Black Friday shopping, this holiday is certainly memorable and well enjoyed from year to year.

Page 4

Happy Holidays at Westover by: Lauren Danielowski ‘14

Westover’s cultural diversity is something to be applauded. Our opportunity to be exposed to different cultures and practices is a rare gift that is sometimes overlooked. This holiday season, we are going home to partake in the familiar family festivities that get us feeling all nostalgic and sentimental. To get an idea of just how some members of the Westover community celebrate the winter holidays, I interviewed three students: Laura Delight Van Tartjwik, a junior boarder from the Netherlands; Stephanie Crudele, a junior day student from Middlebury, CT; and Lauren-Nicole Laurenceau, a junior boarder from New York.

When asked about Christmas traditions in the Netherlands, Laura proceeded to tell me about Sinterklaas. “Every year on the 15th of December St. Nikolaas, more commonly known as Sinterklaas, arrives in the Netherlands from Spain on his steamboat together with his helpers who are black because of the chimneys they have to climb down every year!

Once he is in the country, kids put their shoes by the fireplace each night and sing traditional Sinterklaas songs in the hopes that he will come and give them gifts or candy. A nice thing to do is to leave some carrots for Sinterklaas’s white horse, Schimmel, who he rides every night. Sinterklaas’s birthday is on the 5th of December, which is the biggest part of this celebration.

On this night we expect a black helper called “zwarte piet,” to come by our door and leave a huge bag of gifts! Sinterklaas will also surely leave you a poem. Once you get older, the idea of “believing” in Sinterklaas wears off, and instead groups of friends get together and make each other surprises, usually a handmade object that has something to do with their hobbies and is filled with candy and gifts. These surprises are not justboxes; they are VERY elaborate

December 4, 2012 and require a lot of time. I have received things like a piano made of wood, a microphone, a horse head, and a huge lipstick tube. Common treats Sinterklaas leaves the kids are pepernoten (similar to gingersnaps), speculaas (a type of cookie), taai taai poppen (doll sized dessert that is a crossover between a cake and a cookie), chocolate letters, chocolate coins, and a type of candy called schuimpjes. If you don’t behave well, Sinterklaas always threatens to take kids in his bag back to Spain. Also, if you don’t behave well, you might get hay in your shoes instead of candy!

Kids in the Netherlands love Sinterklaas, but they are also a little scared of him!”

Stephanie Crudele is 100% Italian and shared about her Christmas dinner. “We eat a lot of food,” she says. For Italians, this consists of sausage, pasta with red sauce, antipasto, polenta, chicken cutlets, and other delectable Italian cuisine items! While Stephanie does not eat the traditional seven fish on Christmas Eve that represent the Seven Holy Sacraments in the Catholic Church, she does enjoy chichirate, “a wreath shaped dessert that is comprised of little fried balls of dough stuck together with honey to form the shape of a wreath. While some people leave it without any garnishes, I like mine with sprinkles on top.” Delicious!

Lauren-Nicole Laurenceau is a New York girl, but she still celebrates the rich traditions of her Dominican heritage. “On January 6th, my family and I celebrate Three Kings Day.” For those who are not familiar with the story of the Three Kings, it was said that three kings traveled on camels to Bethlehem to visit the newborn baby Jesus twelve days after his birth and to present him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, which at the time and even today are very precious and valuable gifts. The song about the twelve days of Christmas is often the countdown to the arrival of the three kings. Because Jesus received his gifts on this day, many families wait to exchange gifts until the twelfth day of Christmas (January 6th). This “feast day” is also referred to as “the Epiphany” all around the world. Lauren says “the night before we leave water and grass for the camels and then we get our presents in the morning.”

Evidently, everyone celebrates the holidays in their own special way. Every way, regardless of how different it is, proves to be a bonding force amongst friends and family and a reminder not only of our heritage, but of the sacred things in our day-to-day lives.

Page 5

December 4, 2012

Kate Wymard

...continued from page 3 hard shots. In addition, squash is a very social game and Kate appreciates that she “made a lot of friends throughout the world, for example: Colombia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Germany, Sweden, France…” and the list goes on. A sport is even more enjoyable when you have connections with the people that you play with. Even though squash is an individual sport, the teams are extremely supportive and fun. All of the members of the team want the other to succeed.

Kate was a member of the Trinity squash team during her time at the college. While on the team she held a very impressive record of twenty-two wins and zero losses. That’s right, Kate was undefeated while a member of the squash team. Kate hopes to pass on her knowledge of the game and the interest in squash that was encouraged by Trinity. Kate explained that Trinity has a strong squash program that endorses the sport by offering a beginner class for credits. Kate hopes to reflect Trinity’s support of squash at Westover by encouraging others to try a new sport.

WICK-er of the Month Name: Andie Dahl

Class year: 2014 Home state: CT Hobbies: Sailing, Drawing, Squash Siblings: none Idol: No matter how corny it is, my dad.

Pink or Blue?: Blue Rain or Snow?: Snow iPad or Laptop?: Laptop Roommate or single?: Roommate Favorite Westover tradition: Lantern Fondest Westover memory: My first Candlelight Favorite song: “Crash into Me” by Dave Matthews Favorite holiday: Thanksgiving Favorite quote: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” - John Lennon

When I asked Kate about her favorite part about coaching, she told me, “I enjoy coaching girls especially because they remind me of when I was younger.” Kate feels a connection to the girls on the Westover squash team because of nostalgia from when she first started playing the sport. By filling the positions of art history teacher and squash coach at Westover Kate gets to work in her two loves and “feels fortunate to share them with girls and make it a profession.” Seeing improvement and eagerness to learn makes coaching so rewarding for Kate.

As a coach, Kate believes that fitness is a vital part of the sport since “at the end of the day, if you can’t get to the ball your control of the ball won’t serve you well.” Squash is a physically demanding and quick game. It is a confidence boost during a game “to have an advantage by knowing that you are physically capable.” Although the team has moaned from soreness this past week, it will greatly pay off during a game. The Westover community is happy to have Kate Wymard as part of our family as she passes down the tricks of the game of squash and whips the teams into shape.

WICK Staff

Layout Editors: Andie Dahl ‘14 and Lauren Danielowski ‘14 Writers: Chae Young-Uhm ‘13, Stephanie Sorosiak ‘13 Laura van Tartwijk ‘14, Lauren Danielowski’14, Andie Dahl ‘14, Photographers: Victoria Graham ‘16 Faculty Advisor: Kati Eggert

Questions or Comments about the WICK? Please e-mail Wendy Westover at wwestover@westoverschool.org The Wick title by Andie Dahl ‘14

Page 6

JV Field Hockey by: Laura van Tartwijk ‘14

Every day at 3:25, each member of the JV Field Hockey had a big decision to take: whether or not to take the infamously heavy ball bag up the mountain.

Not only did this selfless person have to make sure not to slip on the mud while balancing the bag, and ensuring that the broken zipper would not cause the balls to roll out, this person also had to be on the lookout for Kati Eggert, our beloved coach. Being late for practice was probably the biggest fear we all had throughout the season, as the severity of the consequences was never predictable. Sprints, a perimeter, push ups, nothing was out of the question. Once the rest of the team caught sight of the girl with the ball bag, panic struck because this meant Kati was soon to arrive.

Fiona Jones ’15, however, never had to worry: she was that one member of the team that was always on time, casually sitting on the JV bench with her field hockey stick in one hand, and her iPod in the other, jamming Photo by Victoria Graham ‘16 out to her favorite songs. As Ghalia Abu Sitteh ‘15 strolled up the mountain, we all started our daily, leisurely warm up lap during which Priyanka Aghadi ’16 now and then asked a member of our team where she was from. Reyes Gomez was asked multiple times whether or not she was actually from Brazil. Not only that, our goalie Priyanka, was also confused about the definition of a scrimmage during the last week of practice. Evie Summermatter ’14, always wearing the tightest clothes (she fittingly received the “Tightest Clothes” award during the sports banquet) to practice, had a story to tell every day during active warm-ups: the new guy she met, or the new clothes she bought at a Jack Wills outlet last weekend. Julia Cooper ’15, one of our lovely captains, whose parents were equally loved for their apple cider donuts they provided at the end of many games, always cracked us up with one of her many jokes. Another member of our team, Kath-

December 4, 2012 erine Kromer ’16, or referred to as just “Kromer” by Kati and the team, looked like she lived and breathed Field Hockey. Her perfect blonde hair was always in a flawless ponytail, occasionally dressed up with a bow, and her outfits were very stylish, as though she just walked out of Fitness Magazine’s workout section. She also loved to highlight her Virginian roots: she accordingly chose the word “Redneck” as the first word of the day. The “word of the day” is a tradition that we tried to stay true to throughout the season. The word selection was always quite interesting, and did not always have something to do with the accomplishments made during practice that day: burrito, “we kunnen het” (Dutch for “we can do it”), banana, and a word in Arabic that we were all unable to pronounce (Ghalia and Layan’s facial expressions were priceless) were all among some of our word selections.

Our great team spirit continued throughout the entire season, however, there were some moments where it could have been lost. Lets face it: none of us, besides three players had ever touched a Field Hockey stick, some of us had never even played a single sport in our lives. We only had 1 sub, sometimes 0 subs as Laura and Ghalia’s ankle injuries, Katherine’s back injury, and sickness all prevented some of us to play in every game. We all had to go from barely being able to run a perimeter (not all, Layan Al Sayeh and Sophia Lee ’15 were speed demons!), to running through an entire game. Kati pushed us very hard, making us run many sprints and perimeters; our hard work did pay off as we saw an increased performance game by game.

Evie scored our first, and only goal this season.

As sad as that may sound, 1 goal, we all accomplished more personal goals than we ever could have imagined. Lizzie Heisler ’16 started out knowing nothing about defense, but surely became a key part of our defense, making many defensive saves this season. Priyanka’s goalie skills improved so much, there was even a game in which she made 16 saves! Rachael Shurberg ’15, also one of our captains, has an incredible hit and took all the free shots during our games, and Fiona went from having a hard time running to completing the bridge run!

As we improved on the field, we also kept growing closer as a team. Slowly but surely, we all started to remember to bring up our puzzle piece so that we could complete our team puzzle (that Kati made for us!) right before each game, and ultimately more of us started to gladly make the great sacrifice of carrying the ball bag up the hill.