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Winter Formal set to be a fun night on the dance floor

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By Riya Bhattarai

     Dances are one of the most anticipated events of the school year for many students. 

     Homecoming occurs at the beginning of the school year, often in September, while the Winter Formal tends to happen mid-year. 

     Although this year, the date has changed a bit, and the dance is occurring later than previous years as it is being held March 1 according to Student Council adviser, Dana Kester.

     Usually like previous years, dances happen in the school gymnasium, and this year’s winter formal will keep the same tradition. 

     ¨SMFHS Commons and Gym [is where the dance will take place],” senior Elena Kimmich, chair of Student Council said. 

     Food and drinks are also another important factor in a formal dance. 

    ¨We will have free cookies and water, [and] Kona Ice and Rowdy Beans will be there for purchase,¨ Kimmich stated. 

      This year’s Winter Formal date has had some problems in the planning area as it was changed “a few times this year due to building scheduling issues,” Kester said.  “We had to work around basketball schedules, Speech and Debate tournaments and Foodie Palooza.” 

     Planning and creating an event may seem like a semi-easy thing; however, once a theme is chosen, there is quite a bit of work that goes into finalizing everything in order for the event to be successful. 

    “Once they choose a theme, they create a vision board for inspiration and also to ensure their design is cohesive. From there, they think about the different areas that need to be decorated: the staircases, lockers, trophy cases, windows and tables. The committee chairs oversee the decor decisions, but committee members work on their own areas,” Kester said. 

     Kimmich discussed how each committee member is given an area of the commons to decorate, and she is in charge of designing that part of things.  

     ¨This year, each are is a different part of ‘Wonderland,’ so the entrance staircase is themed ‘The Garden’ where Alice is seen, and the lockers are themed ‘Mad Hatter.’ We work with Mrs. Sedor to sell tickets and make purchases. The committee makes sure all of our advertisements are approved and fit the theme,¨ Kimmich said.  

     Student council members will be busy the morning of March 1 preparing the commons and surrounding areas for the dance later that evening. Kester said about 40 students will participate in the decorating from 8 a.m. until 12 p.m., and will work in their designated areas to make the commons suitable for a magical night. 

      “Student Council is a well-oiled machine on the morning of a dance,” Kester said. 

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Many have heard of the religion Islam, it’s the second most spread religion in the world and still many people convert. Islam is a monotheistic religion, Muslims believe in one god (Allah) and his messenger (Prophet Mohammed). For the majority of the Muslim population Islam isn’t just a religion it’s a way of life, Muslims choose to abide by the teachings of the prophet mohammed they choose to follow  rules of Allah. 

The rules of Allah are in the Quran they teach us right from wrong which in Arabic (Halal and Haram). For example, drinking alcohol/wine is forbidden, eating pork is also not allowed. The Quran is the Holy Book, it teaches us, but it’s rather more complicated, reading it can be easy but understanding it is hard, only top scholars understand it, Muslims choose to follow certain scholars based on whether they are Sunni or Shia and what they believe, all Muslims believe in the same God, the same prophet, and the same book (The Quran) 

     There are slight differences between Sunni and Shia muslims. It goes back thousands of years ago when the Prophet Mohammed died. People were arguing who should take on the caliphate, Abu Bakur, who was the Prophet’s friend or Ali bin Talib, who was his cousin. Sunni’s believe that Abu Bakar should have been the leader because he was the Prophet’s close friend. Although Shias believe Ali should have been the next leader since he was related to the prophet and the believed God (Allah) chose Ali to be the next Caliph of Islam. 

     Shia’s belief that the prophet Mohammed designated Ali to be his next heir after he died he gave a speech and raised his hand saying that he wants Ali to be the leader after he had died. 

    This conflict had happened thousands of years ago, Sunnis and Shias are one they are both Muslims but just with a little bit of differences. Ali sons Hussein,Hasan, and Abbas are a huge part of history, and they mean alot to not just Shia muslims but also many Sunni muslims. 

     These brothers changed history because of the battle they fought, which was The battle of Karbala.

    According to the article (The battle of karbala) “The Battle of Karbala was fought on 10 October 680 (10 Muharram in the year 61 AH of the Islamic calendar) between the army of the second Umayyad caliph Yazid (r. 680–683) and a small army led by Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, at Karbala.”

   This battle took place in modern day Iraq. Imam Hussein (the prophet’s grandson) and his brothers and army fought the army of Yazid, Imam Hussein only had 70 people in his army, and the opposing army (the army of yazid) had thousands. 

     Imam Hussein had his family and companions with him; they stayed in Karbala for ten days with little food and water, eventually there was no water at all. Imam Hussein started his travels wanting to go to Iraq because he believed it was his religious duty to stand up for justice, he didn’t know that he would get stuck in Karbala, he was planning on going to Kufa, Iraq. Imam Hussein also didn’t know he was going to battle but the Yazid army stopped him in Karbala and blocked him from continuing his travel. That’s when the most horrifying ten days started. Known as Muharram. 

     On the tenth day known as (Ashura) came Imam Hussein and all his brothers and campaigns were killed, in a horrifying way. He took the rest of his family as prisoners, and made them walk all the way to Syria to meet Yazid.

    The story of Imam Hussein isn’t forgettable because of what he and his family went through, he had a very little army and very little people supporting him. But now he has millions of people from all over the world visiting his Shrine in Karbala, Iraq, the land he got killed on and the land where he watched his family die right in front of him. 

The story of Imam Hussein and the background of Shia islam is very historical.