Our town: Old and new

Two pupils visited the old Inner-german bordehttp://www.sks-burgbreite.bildung-lsa.de/seiten/comenius.htm

Christmas Greetings from Germany

Christmas Greetings

Christmas in Finland

Christmas preparations start early in Finland with ‘Little Christmas'. Little Christmas or "pikkujoulu" means a certain kind of pre-Christmas celebration, for example many companies offer their staff a restaurant outing (often with alcoholic beverages) before Christmas. It can also be thought of as a period of time in late November through early December when such feasts most often occur.

There are three other Advent Sundays before Christmas. One candle is lit and put either in a special candlestick that holds four, or as the first of the four candles on the Christmas tree. Other times, the four candles of Advent are placed in the home often near a window where they can be plainly seen.

Children get their first Christmas present then. Small children get an Advent Calendar with a window to open each day before Christmas.

Everyone helps to make "piparkakkuja" or gingerbread, shaping it into stars, hearts, moons, pigs and other figures. Cold ham, salted meat and pickled herrings are also eaten, as is herring salad with chopped carrots, turnips or salted cucumber. (The ham is usually 5-10 kg in weight, is coated with mustard and equals to a Christmas turkey as known to the Americans; very few Finns eat Christmas turkey.)

Tulips, hyacinths or poinsettias or gifts are given to friends. Families gather at home around the tree and drink a cup of glögi, made of red wine, spices and raisins.

The main Christmas celebration starts at twelve o'clock on December 24th by the Mayor of Helsinki, who says everyone should pay their respects to the Christ Child's birth. So early on Christmas morning, around six o'clock, every body gets up and goes to church. The churches are lit with candles at all the pews. When the snow is extremely deep, the service is watched on television.

We will tell you about Christmas in Finland. We have a Christmas
tree in the house. We eat very much ham, salad, potatoes and
everything tasty, chocolate, of course, and sweets. Santa Claus
usually comes with his presents on Christmas Eve. Santa Claus
has a long beard, red clothes and a silly hat. Santa Claus lives in
Korvatunturi, Finland. There are a lot of brownies helping him.

Christmas is very traditional celebrations in Finland. People spend Christmas in 24.12. At that time is usually snow and frost in Finland.

At Christmas people buy a Christmas tree and then they decorate it. People buy presents to each other, pack them and then put them under the Christmas tree.

Traditional Christmas dishes are ham, Swede casserole, escalloped potatoes, carrot casserole and rice porridge.

At Christmas people bake ginger biscuits and Christmas cakes. There is plum jelly in the Christmas cakes. On Christmas Eve evening Father Christmas comes to give presents for everyone. Then everybody sing Christmas songs and they open the presents. Everybody is happy at Christmas.

Christmas in Finland. One day before Christmas we
usually go into the forest and cut down a good Christmas tree.
We put that tree inside our home. Then on Christmas Eve
we put a golden star on the top of that Christmas tree
and other beautiful things on it. We decorate our homes beautifully. On Christmas Eve we go to the Finnish sauna.
Father Christmas visits every family and gives presents.
He is an old, friendly man who wears red clothes.
And we have a Christmas meal, too. It is ham, rosolli salad,
carrot cassarole, rice porridge, plum pudding and ginger
bread and tarts. Early in the morning on Christmas Day we go to Christmas church where we listen to Christmas songs.

Greetings from Wernigerode

Hello, we are Ramazan and Mahmoud. The idea blokspot of you is very good. We have seen the images and read the comments. We liked to read. We are going in the 10th class. The 10th class is running well for us. Now we hope that we find a good work because it is our last year at school. We look forward to meet the Turkish pupils here. We want to see them and get to know them.
Greetings from Germany

Student’s walkout.

Last Thursday 22nd, in Vigo, young students from different high schools went on a strike against fascism. The Syndicate of Students of Vigo was the organizer of this walkout and the group that had a speech about this problem, a problem that (they said) must be eradicated because it is inhuman and unmoral.
But the strikes started even before of this one. It all started when a pair of neo-Nazi people murdered a young anti- fascist boy that was walking to a demonstration in Madrid. Since then the TV has been trying to hide it but the problem’s been getting bigger and bigger. The demonstrations against any kind of racist ideologies or doctrines have gathered a huge number of people in all Spain, something that shows that tolerance, equality, multiculturalism, and peace aren’t values for a small bunch of people but values of all the society.
In the pictures you can see the students concentrating in America Square and walking along Gran Vía Avenue.
By Javier Irazábal