CHRISTMAS TRADITION IN BRITAIN

CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS IN BRITAIN

Christmas in Britain strarts on 24th December, but it isn't as important day as in Poland. On 24th in the evenings children preper cookies and milk for Santa Claus and hang specjal socks. They hope he brings their entidlet presents on the next day morning. Adults while this day often spend with friends. They go ro clubs or make a party.

More important day is 26th December- Christmas Day, when families eat christmas dinner. Special dishes for this occasion is roast turkey, christmas pudding with dried fruits and minces pies (round cake with dried friut and nut. Very famous tradition is pulling of crackers.  Ckracker is a  paper tube with toys, puzzle and others small gifts. Two people must pull ends and the cracker breaks, when it is can hears special sound. It's a very funny tradition. On this day British Queen delivers chrismas speech to all people too.

26th December is called Boxing Day, when people preper presents for the poor. It's a very nice and friendly tradiotion. Many shops often ofer a special sales for this occasion.

During all Christmas as in Poland British sings carods. decorate their house and trees, not work and spent time with their families.

Our  school participates in the AIESEC project in cooperation with Warsaw School of Economics. This project enables students from all around the world to serve an apprenticeship 

in various parts of the globe.

 Between 15^th and 19^th of December our school hosted three students: Terry (New Zealand), Claire (China) and Vicente (Mexico). They had the opportunity to conduct classes and participate in various projects. They took part in a school Christmas Eve and ,accordingly, they learnt Christmas customs, shared the communion wafer and sampled traditional dishes. They listened to the choir, Drohiczyńskie Warsztaty Muzyki Liturgicznej.  These students stayed in  our students’  houses  and visited  Sokolow. 

They even went to the hairdresser.

Each class participated in such lessons. It was really beneficial for students, because they could demonstrate their knowledge of English. We learned a lot about students’ life and culture.

The first person with whom we had a lesson was Terry from New Zealand.

He prepared for us a multimedia presentation.

He talked about the culture of New Zealand and sang a traditional song accompanied by a dance, called the Haka Maori.

This made a great impression on us and some of us were even scared.

Players before the match also sing and dance this dance.

The main language spoken by New Zealanders is English, but  Maori is a traditional language.

Besides all of these, he talked about religion, people, politics, traditional dishes, holidays.

He described how the holidays are celebrated  in New Zealand.  The tradition of this country is much more different than our Polish tradition. At that time,  a lot of people take their families to have a picnic. Christmas Eve is not celebrated at all, what is more, on 24^th December  all the people work as usual.

He also told us about the animal species that have become extinct - Kiwi.

The second lesson was conducted by Claire from China.

She also prepared a multimedia presentation for us and talked about the traditions of her country. She told  us  about the religion and traditional dishes.

The red colour is regarded as the colour which brings luck, so there is plenty of it in China.

Claire showed us red New Year's Eve ornaments, which are affixed to the windows. They depicted dragons, butterflies, flowers, etc.

We could have a closer look at Chinese signs. Caire taught us how  to write down  different words on a special mat. It was amazing experience for us, because after short period of time the words disappeared. Anyone willing could try to write something in Chinese. This experience showed us that the Chinese language is very difficult.

The last person with whom we had lesson was Vicente from Mexico. He, like the other two students, prepared the presentation which described his country: culture, traditions, food, religion.

His lesson was very interesting. He brought a lot of toys. He took with him a Mexican attire: the well-known sombrero and poncho. We took a commemorative photo of it.

Vincente found common ground with our classmate. She exchanged with him the knowledge of Mexican soap operas.

We enjoyed the meeting with students.

By dint of lessons, we learned a lot about the culture of other countries.

They readily  answered the questions and shared interesting stories. It was interesting experience!

                                                                                                                     

 Lots of love, 

                                                                                       Marta i Ola