F. Melius Christiansen

The man to my right here is F. Melius Christiansen,  A man revered as a sort of God on this campus. As I was sitting in the Christmasfest bleachers I had a chance to read through the 100th anniversary program fairly thoroughly. I read about Christiansen founding the St. Olaf music department, building up the esteem of the St. Olaf choir and creating the tradition of Christmasfest. He originally just had a small program with the St. Olaf choir in Hoyme chapel. Over the years it evolved to include a theme, dancers, lights, and general spectacle, but by our time the decision was made to make it a singing performance. The set was created to supplement the music and the readings were included to further the theme of each year.  While I've heard people say Christiansen's actual abilities to arrange and compose were lacking, there's no doubt that he has had an inescapable impact on this campus. As we look into our history it's these important figures, like Christiansen, Boe, Hilboe or Kildahl who represent the everlasting ideals of our institution. These men had visions to last beyond their years; it's like our own set of founding fathers. We still strive to embody the ideals they instilled in the institution in its nascence, except slightly more modern in form. Perhaps that is what tradition is: continuing to perpetuate our old ideals. We say St. Olaf is an institution of traditions- whether those traditions are Norwegian, Lutheran, Musical or foundational- I find that this may just mean we have respect for the visions of those behind us.