Ponder High School Roar Halloween: Where Did It Come From? By Allison Gordon Every Year on the night of October 31 children dress up in costumes and walk around door to door collecting candy and having fun. People go to parties, have bonfires or go to haunted houses, but have you ever wondered how it all began? All Hallows Eve, which changed to Hallowe’en which changed again to Halloween, originated from the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain. In the Gaelic culture this festival is a celebra- tion of the end of the harvest season. On Samhain ancient pagans would take stock of supplies to store it and prepare for winter. They believed that on October 31 the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc, like causing a sickness or damage on the crops. To keep the trouble making spirits calm people dressed up in “ghostly” looking costumes, to appear dead. The practice of dressing up in costumes and begging door to door for treats on holi- days goes back to the Middle Ages, originating from Ireland and Britain. The poor would go door to door and receive food in exchange for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day on November 2. This was known as Souling. In Britain, most Halloween traditions died out when Puritanism came into the 16th and 17th centuries, but games such as bobbing for apples, where you use your mouth to pick up apples from a large tub of water with floating apples, are proof of past rituals. It is said that if you cut the peel off an apple you caught and throw it over your left shoulder, into the water, that it would reveal the initials of your true love. Originally Jack-O-Lanterns were made from turnips and potatoes. The purpose of the Jack-O-Lantern came from the Irish Myth about “Stingy Jack”. Jack had played a couple tricks on the Devil and forced him to leave him alone and not claim his soul when he died. Well when he did die God would not allow such an unsavory soul into heaven and the Devil, keeping his word, did not claim his soul either and sent him into the night with only a burning coal to light the way. This Jack put into a carved out turnip and roams the earth still. People began to make their own Jack-O-Lanterns with scary faces to scare Jack and other evil away. So Ponder, get your costumes and masks; get your candy and bags, and play some games with your friends, because this is sure to be a wicked Halloween. MUAHAHAHA- HAAAAA!!!! Spanish Club Makes Dreams Come True By Noelia Scandoval Last May the Spanish Club raised money to sponsor a student named Yovani to go to school for a full year in Guatemala. He’s in 10th grade and his favorite subject is math and he likes to play soccer. He lives with his parents and 8 siblings in Tierra Linda, Guatemala. He decided to attend a free carpentry school, so the funds didn’t apply to him anymore. He did write a thank you note saying, “I am very happy and thankful for the donation even though I cannot use it. I hope you and your families are blessed by God for doing such a good deed. We will talk again soon, have a blessed life.”- Yovani Cota Bocel. The Spanish Club then decided to give the money to Aroldo Milton who is also in 10th grade. Aroldo lives with his mother and four siblings in San An- dres Semetabaj. His father passed away in 2007, and now his mother must work to support the family by making tortillas, washing clothes by hand, and cleaning private houses, but only earns about $2 a day for all this. Aroldo has a younger sister, Astrid, who was born with cerebral palsy and therefore his mother can only work three or four days a week because she has to take care of her. Aroldo doesn’t have his own bed and has to share will his siblings. The family eats rice, beans, tortillas, herbs, and pasta but they do not have enough food for everyone. The Spanish Club’s goal is to raise even more money to support another student. Claudia Marina is in 10th grade. She lives with her parents and two siblings in Panajachel. Her father works as a day laborer, and her mother sometimes works selling tortillas. Their work is not steady; however, and they struggle to cover the costs of the family’s needs. Her father makes about $5 a day while her mother makes about $4. Their meals are mostly rice, pasta, and beans. They live in a two bedroom home made of cement blocks. Spanish three wrote letters to these three students and sent pictures of themselves. Our PHS students described themselves and their lives in Ponder, and then asked the Guatemalan students about their lives and about their living environment. When they write back we are hoping to Skype chat with them. If you would like to contribute to help sponsor a stu- dent, donate money to Ms. Knitter in her room. As you can see, the Spanish club does a lot of good. We’d love to have you join us! Come to the next meeting and see how you can contribute to society. Ponder Students Assist DEA by Teryana Sledge On Saturday, September 27th, four of our very own Ponder High School students, Cristian Woolbright, Arianna Woolbright, Keegan Hobbs, and Austin Keen, assisted the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) in disposing of drugs at the 9th and final DEA National Prescription Drug- Take Back. The National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day aims to provide a safe, convenient, and responsible means of disposing of prescription drugs, while also educating the general public about the potential for abuse of medications. They were the only students other than one Keller student to give up 5 hours of their Saturday to help the DEA with receiving and transferring over 15,000 pounds of prescription and over-the-counter drugs to trucks to be taken and destroyed. All of the students conducted themselves correctly and worked hard. It was part of a nation-wide cam- paign that the DEA has sponsored since 2005 to encourage the proper dis- posal of expired or unused prescription drugs, and this was the final year the DEA would be coordinating the event. From now on, the local law enforcement departments will be responsible for receiving and destroying these types of drugs themselves. We all are very proud of these students and sure that they will continue helping improve our community. From the Kitchen of Shelby Cormier Recipe For: Super Spooky Spider Cookies October brings fall, sweaters, cocoa, and Ingredients: –my favorite- Halloween! What’s the best way to get into the Halloween spirit? 1 package of chocolate fudge cake mix Halloween treats! Nothing spices up the holiday more than a new recipe to try 1/2 cup of melted butter out. For a cute spider cookie recipe you will need: The first thing you will want 1 egg to do is in a large bowl, combine your cake mix, butter, and egg. The dough should be stiff. Shape the dough into 1 inch 1 can (16 oz) of chocolate frosting balls. Next, place the cake balls onto a baking sheet. Bake the balls at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until done. Let Black licorice the cake balls cool. If the cake balls are to round, flatten them down with your hands. You are going to want a flat Ret hot candies (or any other red, ball- pancake shape. Finally, spread a teaspoon of frosting over the bottom of a cookie. Place a 4 ½ inch licorice pieces on the shaped candy side of the cookie. The frosting will act as “glue”. The lico- rice will be the spider legs. Place another cookie on top of the frosting; it will be like a sandwich. To make eyes, put two dots of frosting on top of the “spider.” Stick 2 of the red hot candies (or any red ball candy) onto the frosting. If you followed this recipe, you should now have a cute new idea for some spooky Halloween treats this year. Fall Festival By Kaylee Buell This year on the 11th of October, the whole Ponder school district will join together to fill the air with Halloween spirit. At the Fall Festival that Ponder throws yearly, there are fun games all over the football parking lot brought by all the grades, a haunted house put on by the high school drama class, raffles offered to everyone from each grade, and a silent auction in one of the school buildings. Whether you are with your little sibling who’s in elementary or with your best friend, Fall Festival is a blast with candy, cake, and, if you are willing to use your tickets on someone else, a “jail.” The Fall Festival is like a mini-Halloween to get your candy quota early, then get some more at Halloween. One booth, the Haunted House, put on by the drama department was quite the scream, whether they were dissecting someone, or luring you into the Devil’s Lair, you were never prepared for the next scare. Billy, a very popular stu- dent at the school said, “It was so loud!” Another popular booth was the Cake Walk, put on by the senior class, where you would test your luck to win some treats! Fall Festival this year was a hoot, even though the second half of the Ponder vs.