{"id":6754,"date":"2017-11-30T19:53:02","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T03:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=6754"},"modified":"2017-11-30T19:53:02","modified_gmt":"2017-12-01T03:53:02","slug":"western-welcomes-annual-holiday-festivities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/western-welcomes-annual-holiday-festivities\/","title":{"rendered":"Western welcomes annual holiday festivities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Zo<\/span>\u00eb<\/span> Strickland | Managing Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

On Friday, Dec. 1, the lights on the giant sequoia will be turned on for the 50th consecutive year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite it being the 50th annual tree lighting, the first time the tree was adorned with lights wasn\u2019t 50 years ago. In 1940, lights were put on the tree as a way of celebrating then-faculty member John Scott. However, the next time the Sequoia saw lights was Nov. 27, 1967. <\/span><\/p>\n

The effort to bring the holiday spirit to Monmouth was student-run. An article from the Nov. 9, 1967 issue of The Monmouth Herald stated that it was the women of Todd Hall, a residence hall at the time, that kickstarted the process of incorporating holiday festivities; \u201cGirls from Todd hall were present to get council approval for a project to light the sequoia tree on the OCE campus as a community Christmas Tree.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A follow-up piece from Nov. 23 reported the council\u2019s approval: \u201cWhat has been billed as \u2018The World\u2019s Largest Living Christmas Tree\u2019 will be lighted on the OCE campus on Monday evening. The tree, a 122 foot tall sequoia located in front of Campbell hall on the campus, will be lighted in a 7 p.m. ceremony.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The sequoia that once stood at 122-feet is now estimated to be between 125 and 130-feet tall. \u201c<\/span>We may have to lengthen the top piece, the satellite, that the lights are attached to, to accommodate the growth of the tree,\u201d said Kevin Hughes, Landscape Maintenance Coordinator. <\/span><\/p>\n

Though the sequoia is no longer touted as the world\u2019s largest Christmas tree, the tradition has persevered through tumultuous times. The tree was not available to comment on its dethroned title. <\/span><\/p>\n

Over the years, the responsibility of planning the events has shifted. When originally proposed by a residence hall, students were in charge of coordinating the ceremonies. However, non-student run entities of the institution eventually took the reigns. <\/span><\/p>\n

In 1992, the school was unsure if they had the funds to continue the tree lighting ceremony. As a result, the community banded together to continue the event.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn response to Western\u2019s pleas for help, the community will be picking up a lot of the financial burden of this holiday fixture, but not all of it. The Incidental Fee Committee recently met to discuss the options available to them \u2026 this year\u2019s expenses are estimated at $6500 \u2026 to lessen the stress of this annual holiday expenditure, the Incidental Fee Committee began fundraising,\u201d reported a 1992 article of the Western Star.<\/span><\/p>\n

Western\u2019s tree lighting tradition is one that members of the Western community look forward to, \u201c<\/span>Driving through campus at night when the tree is lit, trying to spot it on highway 99 while coming to work,\u201d Hughes said when asked about his favorite thing about the tradition.<\/span><\/p>\n

The best thing that students can do to keep this event going is showing their support, \u201cKeep the excitement and process going. Generations are enjoying the celebration. It started out as a community event and it will continue to bring people back to our WOU campus. When we install the lights on the tree, I have a sigh of relief and know that in approx. 1 month, the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year celebrations will begin,\u201d Hughes added.<\/span><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s events will kick off at 6 p.m. with a holiday parade that will head from Monmouth Library to the main drag of campus. The parade includes floats by different student groups around campus and Monmouth, as well as an appearance by Santa Claus. 7 p.m. is double booked with both a local school choir concert, and a wine and music gathering at Gentle House.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Werner University Center will be open during the night, and will have indoor programs such as a holiday cookie bake-off, tree decorating contest, live music from KWOU and an area for people to get their photo taken with Santa.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact the author at journalmanaging@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zo\u00eb Strickland | Managing Editor On Friday, Dec. 1, the lights on the giant sequoia will be turned on for the 50th consecutive year. Despite it being the 50th annual tree lighting, the first time the tree was adorned with lights wasn\u2019t 50 years ago. In 1940, lights were put on the tree as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1030,"featured_media":6755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}