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Traditional German winter festivities and celebrations

Von San Jose - own map, based on the Generic Mapping Tools and ETOPO2, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=676986

German togEUther club

Syrian winter traditionsIn Syria, we do not celebrate Christmas. We have only one day off which is on the first of January in this Christmas days some people go to a place where the Christian people live and have a look at how they celebrate . We also have a different calendar a year is only 355 days long. In our calendar, we have the year 1439 other calendar. They sometimes come in winter and sometimes in summer. We have two big festivities in the year one of them is after Ramadan. It is called “Sugar festival” and last three days long. The other one is called “Victim festivity. It is four days long and comes two months after the first one. During the second festivity, fresh lamb meat is given to the poor people because the meat is rather expensive. All the people buy new clothes before each festivity. The children get presents on the first day.Written by Siham, Yazan and Barah for the Erasmus Project “TogEUther” in 2017

Nowadays

Saint Martin's day Germany

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Fact

So nowadays we honour St. Martin with the processions on his day, but it is also a kids' festivity day: they eat a special pastry, called "Weckmann", and the adults usually eat a roasted goose on this day.

Fact

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Saint Martin's processions

During St. Martin's processions, children and their parentswalk along the streets and sing typical St. Martin's songs holding their lanterns.

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Which songs we sing on this day

The children sing traditional St. Martin's songs during the processions, they are holding a lantern in their hands and sing:" In the heaven above us the stars are shining and here, on the ground, we are the ones to shine".

Where do we celebrate it?

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Fact

St. Martin is not only honoured and celebrated in Germany: also other European countries honour him, but all counties celebrate his day differently. St. Martin is considered to be a spiritual bridge between European cultures.

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What do we learn?

It should be a lesson to us and If at some point we see a homeless person on the street, we must help him like he did it.

Why he is so famous?

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Fact

Later in his life, he became a bishop. When he died, he was pronounced to be a saint and people still make pilgrimage to his shrine in Spain, because he is the symbol of a good heart and of helping people in need..

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What is the tradition today?

German children go from one house to another and they sing typical St. Martin's songs to get some sweets. During the St. Matin's procession, they walk around with lanterns and sing. Normally, there is also an orchestra going in front of the procession and a man on the horse who is dressed like a Roman soldier. This procession is meant to honour St. Martin.

What has he done?

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Fact

One day, he found a poor man on the street. And it was very cold, he gave him half of his coat. The poor man did not have to freeze anymore.

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Who is he?

He was just a soldier and he was 17 years old, as he was positioned in France. But in this young age, he was old enough to understand the worth of a human life.

Who is Saint Martin

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Fact

Saint Martin`s day is a German tradition. Every year, on November 11th, a saint named Martin is honoured.

in Germany

Christimas Market

Four weeks before Christmas, there are many Christmas markets in Germany. They are in all cities in Germany. For example, the Christmas Market in Erfurt:

There are usually special, mostly hand-manufactured goods, such as arts and crafts for the Christmas decoration and there are also a lot of Christmas drinks food (spicy wine, cakes, cookies...) . Many Christmas markets also offer visitors rides, music and performances such as nativity plays or music shows.

I hope y'all know what a Christmas Market is now. See you next time.

Fun in Winter

With snowmann and sledge

The fun: In winter, we have many possibilities to spend our time outside and have fun. The first thing we think about, when the first snow fell is to grab our stuff and go to built a snowmann or to go sledging.

The snowmann: The old stories tell that the snowman represants the winter. It has the body shape of a human. Normaly a snowmann is built from three big snowballs. Little rocks can be used for the eyes and mouth. His nose is often a carrot. The arms can be made of two branches. Sometimes details like a hat, scarf or broom can be added. Building a snowmann is not a meaningless process, but much more than that. Kids can unfold their fantasy, and what can make a child more proud and happier than showing his parentes the self-made snowman?

What else can be done in winter? Of course, tehre are two great traditions in Germany: baking the Christmas biscuits, and, then, decorating them, and singing Christmas songs. The most famous one is - surprise surprise - about Chrismas baking " In the Christmas bakery". This song is known by every kid in the country!

New Years Eve in Germany

And the traditions around it

New Year´s Eve in germany is called Silvester and it is an important day with a lot of traditions, such as lucky charms the germans give each other to have good luck in the new year. It´s also a day mostly spendt with the family.

There are a bunch of lucky charms you can buy around New Year´s Eve, such as little chimney sweeper, little pigs, toadstools, horseshoes, ladybugs and also shamrocks. They can be made out of marzipan, plastic or wood and the tradition of these lucky charms goes back to the middle ages. Those who had pigs back then were seen as wealthy and the metal from horseshoes was very valueable.

- Decoration

- Food

What to do to kill the time?

During the Gregorian calender reform the last day of the year was shifted from the 24. of December to the 31. Of December, due to the anniversary of death from the pope Silvester, who died on the 31. Of December in the year 335. But nowadays most germans don´t really know why it is called silvester and rather focus on the traditions that come along with this day.

Most germans have raclette or fondue for dinner together with some salades or other small side dishes. The classical version of raclette is done with potatoes and cheese in a little raclette oven. You put some cheese on the potatoes and then wait until the cheese melts a little. On top oft he raclette oven many also roast meat or vegetables, such as paprika. If you eat fondue, it´s mostly done with cheese. You melt cheese in a pot and then dip for example Baguette in there. Both are very tasty!For dessert germans like to eat „Krapfen“. They are like round little fried cakes, which are filled with strawberry jam in the middle and sugar is sprinkled over them.

You might ask yourself why it´s called ´Silvester`

Many like to do lead casting on new year´s eve, to predict their own future. You melt a little piece of lead in a spoon over a little flame, for example from a candle and once it is melted you quickly pour it into a bowl of cold water. You will get a little figure and then need to guess what figure represents. If it´s not clear you can look at it´s shadow to guess what it is. If you get a flower for example it means you will find new friends in the new year.Moreover, if you happen to watch TV you might come across „Dinner for one“. It´s a black white broadcast from 1963 and it´s showed every year on new year´s eve on the german television, making it to one of the most repeated programs in germany.

Once it´s midnight, germans like to clink glasses and drink sprakling wine or champagne and wish each other a happy new year, hug each other, watch the firework or even participate in making a firework.

Winter traditions: SILVESTER in Kazakhstan

IN KAZAKHSTAN the new year"Kazak ZHYL" is celebrated twice on the 1st of January.- in accordance with the European tradition and on 21 -23 th of March .The celebrations are very similar to those in Germany: go out and see the fireworks, have a nice dinner with friends and family and wait for the clock to strike 12!

This is a paragraph. you can write whatever you want.

I LOVE CHRISTMAS

CHRISTMAS AND SILVESTER.

The decoration of the tree is universal .THE trees of the city are decorated as much as possible with Christmas decoration s. HOWEVER unlike in Europe SANTA CLAUS "KAZ. AYAZ ATA "AND SNEGUROCHKA "KAZAKH AKASHAR"are rarelly on the streets - they are usually guests of corporate events .

This is a paragraph. you can write whatever you want.

I LOVE CHRISTMAS

The

“Our Advent wreath "TogEUther":

The Advent season is the time from the fourth Sunday before Christmas until the Christmas Eve. Every Sunday, one of the four candles of the Advent wreath is lit, which consists of fir branches and individual decorations. Small stars, Christmas balls or cinnamon sticks can be attached to it. Usually the Advent wreath is round, but meanwhile there are also many linear Advent wreaths. The Advent season is meant for contemplation, tranquility and coziness. The name "Advent" comes from the Latin word "adventus", which is translated as "arrival". Advent prepares for Christmas Eve on which Jesus Christ was born. To make the whole thing a little more exciting, you can make or buy an Advent calendar with little "doors" or "windows" for every day starting from December 1st. There are countless variations (little presents), but the most common one is to have a piece of chocolate behind your door every day until December 24th. With the Advent wreath and the Adventcalendar, one prepares for December 24th, the day of the arrival of Jesus Christ.

Advent Season

Here, you can see an Advent calendar

Our own advent wreath

During our project in December, we made our own advent wreath for our school. We also manufectured the letters "TogEUther" from clay. It was fun!

“Four advents and four countries in our project..."

tog EU ther

Wintertraditions in Romania

INDEX

1. Sant Nicolae

2.Christmas

4 New Years Eve

3 Christmas Markets

1 Sant Nicolae

Nikolaus comes to the German children, but in Romania he is called Sant Nicolae. This is what is said about him in Romania: "Earlier there was a very rich man who has become famous because he has helped the poor children who have to work very hard for some money. He sold his wealth and has put the money in the chidren's socks which were hanged outside."

2 Christmas

On the 24th, 25th and the 26th of December the Romanians do not do anything special because the are just staying with the family or, usually , they trvel to different places or we visit other people. In Romania, on these days ''COZONAC'' is baked, which issomething that some people call it ''sweet bread''. It is a cake with nuts and chocolate, however, you can also bake it with melted sugar in lots of colours.

3 Christmas Markets

In Romania there are Christmas Markets ,too, where you can find COZONAC smoked sausages or meet. Earlier, there were no sweets or toys, nowadays you can find them, too.

New Years Eve

On the New Years Eve , all the Romanians have an abundant meal at midnight. There is really a lot of food and it is very important to eat fish. you also must have some money in your hand to have luck all the year.