Add holidays to our calendar. Our first eTwinning project

About the project

Many major holidays, such as Halloween, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Easter, are celebrated in nearly every nation across Europe. Nevertheless, food traditions and other cultural aspects tend to vary from place to place. Our project aims to highlight which are the cultural and culinary differences between how public holidays are celebrated around Europe. Thus, following the structure of a calendar, we will explore the world-famous events, local celebrations and public holidays which take place throughout the year.

Aims

The main objective is that our students communicate in English developing thus the language competence in the foreign language. We intend to work the four skills, speaking, writing, reading and listening. We want our students become aware of the need of using the foreign language and how useful it can be. At the same time, our students will improve their digital skills by using the Twinspace, the mail, etc In addition we want our students get to know other cultures and increase the feeling of European Citizenship. This will be approached by the implementation of non-classical methodologies, promoting creativity and innovation in the teaching and learning process

Work process

Participants are secondary English teachers who usually teach their students about celebrations in UK. We want to start from this common knowledge and then to share how people around Europe celebrate public holidays and what they eat during their festive celebrations The provisional schedule for all the activities to be done throughout the year can be listed as follows:
September 2018: Nice to meet you!: The pupils introduce themselves to their penpals and talk about their schools.
October 2018: Happy Halloween! Do you celebrate Halloween at home? What are you going to do on Halloween?
December 2018: "Merry Christmas": exchange of Christmas cards between the different penpals. How do you celebrate Christmas? Talk about Christmas markets, parties, trees, presents, Christmas recipes.
January 2019: Happy New Year! New Year's Resolutions.
14 February 2019: Valentine’s Day.
March-April 2019: Saint Patrick's . Easter. Carnival. Easter recipes.

Expected results

All the activities will be placed in different pages within the Twinspace. At the end of the project students will have made Powerpoints presentations, posters, videos
The expected results of doing such a project can be listed as follows:
- Having a better knowledge of European celebrations and different food.
- Increasing the pupils' s curiosity, open-mindedness and tolerance.
- Making new friends. - Improving the use of a foreign language.
- Improving the use of computer and internet tools


 Project members
 We are going to work with three other schools  from Poland,  Italy and  Romania.
 The teachers from Spain and Romania are the founders. 
 Our project was registered  on 19.08.2018

22nd December. The Spanish Christmas Lottery

Spanish people love the lottery. Every year, just before Christmas, on the 22nd December Spain has the world’s biggest state lottery, called El Gordo(The Fat One). This is considered to be the start of Christmas Celebrations.






The Spanish Christmas Lottery (officially Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad  or simply Lotería de Navidad  is a national lottery. It has been organized every year since 1812 by a branch of the Spanish Public Administration, now called Loterías y Apuestas del Estado
 The Spanish Christmas lottery is the second longest continuously running lottery in the world, even through the country’s civil war.
People often start buying their tickets as soon as August.
Friends, family and co-workers  usually buy the same number of the lottery ticket . Some people opt to share a ticket, which makes it more affordable for many, with the idea of also splitting the prize..
It is said that 75 percent of Spaniards participate in the Christmas lottery.

Add holidays to our calendar. December

          These are the holidays which we are going to work and share with the other members of the project in December.  

December

     1^st December – Romania’s National Day – it was the moment when Romania’s state independence was proclaimed. In the first years of the 20^th century, on December 1^st 1918, the Romanian provinces became a unitary and indivisible state on the world map. It represents the union between Transilvania, Banat, Crisana and Maramures to the Romanian kingdom.

• Barbórka - traditional, mining holiday, celebrated in Poland on December 4, on St. Barbara, patron of good death and difficult work. Apart from the miners, Barbórka is also celebrated by geologists and other people involved in mining oil exploration. In the mining tradition, Barbórka begins with the morning solemn mass in the church or at the figure of Saint. Barbara. Then the mining orchestra marches by playing, among others their hymn in settlements inhabited by miners.Solemn academies and meetings take place.

 

        6^th December - Saint Nicholas, the generous old man who brings good children gifts and sweets, which he places in their boots and a cane to the naughty ones.

      22nd December. The Spanish Christmas Lottery .
        Spanish people love the lottery. Every year, just before Christmas, on the 22nd December Spain has the world’s biggest state lottery,
        called El Gordo  (The Fat One). This is considered to be the start of Christmas Celebrations.

• Before Christmas Day Italian people use to prepare  some traditional sweets according to the different regions. In our region ABRUZZO it's typical to prepare the "Parrozzo"- All Italian people like eating too the "Pandoro" and the "Panettone".🇮🇹

• 25 and 26 December: Christmas Day and Boxing Day - Christmas means a big celebration in Europe! The build-up starts weeks before with Christmas markets, parties, trees, presents and sweets taking centre stage through most of December, when many people spend time with friends and family.
  Let's talk about “El turrón”
  
  This Spanish sweet treat is enjoyed throughout the year but is really most popular during the festive season when it is an essential component of any Christmas meal. Turrón is a sweet treat made from a mixture of honey, eggs, sugar and, perhaps most importantly of all, toasted almonds.The harder variety is known as turrón duro or Turrón de Alicante, whereas the softer kind is known as turrón blando or turrón de Jijona, in reference to the two towns in which each kind became most famous.
   
• 28 December.Feast of the Holy Innocents, also called Innocents’ Day. 
  Christian feast in remembrance of the massacre of young children in Bethlehem by King Herod the Great in his attempt to kill the infant Jesus. In Spain this day is equivalent of April Fools' Celebrated in December.
  
  
• 31 December : New Year's Eve. On New Year’s Eve it’s traditional to celebrate midnight. There are parties across Europe, Edinburgh’s Hogmany is one of the biggest. New Year’s Day is a public holiday so expect the celebrations to last well into the night!
  Eating 12 grapes one for each stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve is both a tradition and a superstition in Spain although nobody will risk poisoning their fate for the coming year by skipping the grapes.

Add holidays to our calendar. November

          These are the holidays which we are going to work and share with the other members of the project in November

November

• 1 November: All Saints Day. Let's make “Saint's bones”! Recipe
  Despite the odd name, huesos de santo or "saint's bones" are delicious . The Spanish traditionally eat them on November 1st, All Saints Day. That is the day when families gather and visit their loved-ones' graves. The funny name of this sweet comes from the appearance of a white bone on the outside, and is filled with a sticky yellow filling.
  
  
• 5 November: Bonfire night - This event marks the anniversary of Guy Fawkes’ plot to blow up the House of Lords in 1605. There are thousands of organised bonfire night events across the UK to enjoy the spectacular firework displays.
• 30^th November - Saint Andrew. This holiday is a Romanian variant of Halloween. During that night, the skies open and all animals start speaking, but whoever listens to them, will soon die.
• 
• In Poland we also celebrate 30th November - Saint Andrew's Day. In Poland a belief exists that the night before Saint Andrew's Day is especially suitable for magic that reveals a young woman's future husband. If the girl fasted all day and prayed to Saint Andrew, her future beloved husband could appear in her dream.

Celebrate World Paella Day on 20 September!

There are great things happening in Europe all year round.

Enjoy the world-famous events, local celebrations and public holidays that take place throughout the year!

Dive into the Europe’s rich history and contemporary culture!

We want to show you the first eTwinning in our project Add holidays to our calendar:

Celebrate World Paella Day on 20 September!

The date chosen coincides with the month in which rice, the main ingredient in paella, is harvested.

 Paella is perhaps the most famous dish of the rich and varied cuisine Spanish. It is a well-known culinary recipe internationally and is found in  the menus of thousands of restaurants around the world. Most experts agree that the dish was developed in the Spanish city of Valencia.

The word paella  derived from the Latin patella. It receives its name from the large frying pan used to cook it in, made of iron or steel, which must have no more than 5 or 6 cm of depth.  Another particularity is that the long handle has been replaced by two ears. So when the word paella is mentioned, it may mean the dish, it may mean the frying pan!

All Saints' Day

We are in November and we want to show you our fourth eTwinning in our project Add holidays to our calendar : All Saints'Day

All Saints' Day in Spain  takes place on November 1st.

It is a very important national public holiday when people from all over the country return to their town or village to lay flowers on the graves of deceased relatives.  

At this time of year, and especially on November the 1st, cemeteries throughout Spain extend its visiting hours so that everyone can go to put flowers on the graves and remind their dead relatives. Old members of the family also usually clean the graves up and leave them shining as a tribute to those who are gone. Roads around cemeteries will be crammed with traffic, flower sellers line the streets and, in many places, additional public transport services are organised. Although this might sound over-commercialised and hectic it is actually, for most people, a day of high emotions. The Eucharist, or Mass, will often be performed in the cemetery several times during the day.

Special dishes associated with All Saints'Day

In common with many festivals throughout the country there are a number of special dishes which are associated with All Saints’ Day. Chief among these is the tradition of eating roasted chestnuts.

 At this time of the year you will also see in the shops huesos de santo (“the saint’s bones) a traditional pastry which has marzipan, eggs and sugar syrup and buñuelos de viento ( puffs of wind)  which are doughnuts liberally sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.