East Cleveland leader. [volume] (East Cleveland, Ohio) 1942-1970, 1962-11-22

Of the world stage autumn fes-
tivals to celebrate the ripening
of the harvest and the gather
ing in Of crops.
These children wrote a play,
in which a modern Time Mach
inc takes people back to the
very early days of the worlds
history, when almost all civil
ization were agricultural. Then
they showed some Of the har-
vest celebrations and customs
OF those days.
There was the Roman feast
OF Ceres, the goddess of grain,
and the Greek feast of Demeter,
really the same goddess as
Ceres. There was the Succoth
harvest festival of the Jewish
people, and the replenishing of
the family's Good-luck Wreath
Of grains in an old-fashioned
Russian home.
Then there was the Moons
birthday feast of the Chinese,
featuring fruits and cookies
formed into moon shapes, and
the Harvest Home festival of
the early English people, when
the last load of fruits and veg
etables was brought in and
made the centerpiece Of the
celebration. And this led to the
Pilgrims celebration of Thanks
giving in this country, and the
Corn Dance Of the Iroquois
Indians which the colonists
observed when they came here.
Altogether, the harvest fes-
tivals through the ages showed
the children how similar people
are the world over, and how
grateful they all are for the
falls bounty of food to be
stored up for the winter.
Mayfair
AS the fall is the season of
ripened crops, so is it also the
time of seeds. A large collec-
ton Of seeds was brought to
school in recent weeks by the
third grade children in Mrs.
Katherine Knife's room at May
fair School, and they have been
doing a number Of things with
them.
First, they wanted to see if
they could get them to sprout.
They were successful with some
kinds, and not with others.
Poppy and castor oil seeds
opened up well; but buckeyes,
acorns and petunia seeds just
lay in their earthen beds and
did nothing. The children decid-
ed that they would probably
need more time, for one thing,
before they began to sprout;
but they are going to keep on
watching them.
Meanwhile, they have been
doing other things with some
of the seeds they brought to
school. Glued to saucers in dec
orative patterns and then shell
lacked, such seeds as those of
watermelon, grapefruit, canta-
loupes and apples make attrac-
tive gifts for ones parents as
we'll as sharpening ones artis-
tic sense in planning them.
Some seeds were too small to
be handled in this way, and
others such as prune seeds were
to bulky to be of much use in
this kind of endeavor.
Caledonia
Still another sign Of autumn,
and an especially beautiful one,
was spotted by two Caledonia
sixth grade girls on their way
to school the other day. 1t was
a large Monarch butterfly,
which many people think is one
of the prettiest things in Ma
ture.
The girls gathered it up care
fully, so as not to injure it, and
took it to school to their teach
er, Miss Lillian Finnila. She
had seen an article in the paper
about butterflies which she
thought would interest them,
and they hunted it up.
1t seems that a biology pro-
fessor at Western Reserve
University, DR.. James A. Ed
wards, buys butterflies for a
dime apiece if they are alive
and in good condition. This
seemed like a worthwhile deal
to the two girls; so on the
following Saturday they took
their Monarch down to the
Biology Center at Reserve.
DR.. Edwards was glad to buy
the Monarch, and he and the
director of the Center showed
the girls around the biological
laboratories at the university.
He also gave them three live
cocoons to care for during the
winter, including two of very
rare butterflies: an Atlas from
Formosa, and Polyphemus.
The girls will be especially