St. Nicholas Day in Ukraine

St. Nicholas Day is a very special holiday for Ukrainian children and adults. In Ukraine and other Eastern Christian countries it is celebrated on December 19 (unlike Western Christian countries, where it is celebrated on December, 6).

National traditions of St. Nicholas Day celebration in Ukraine

Tradition to celebrate St. Nicholas Day came to Ukraine with the Christianity during the rule of the prince Vsevolod Yaroslavovich (years 1088-1089). Saint Nicholas always considered to be patron saint for children.

In Ukraine St. Nicholas Day was mainly considered as a church fete, but in some Ukrainian regions national traditions of celebration were also strong, they were similar to Christmas celebrations.

At one time in every house beer was brewed for the holiday and on the day of St. Nicholas relatives and friends gathered together to enjoy the taste of beer, to rejoice and to have fun.

In Kharkiv region the holiday was celebrated for three days. On December 17, 18, 19 Ukrainians cooked koliva (kutya) and traditional drink uzvar in order to call upon heavy crop.

In Kyiv region people went to church on St. Nicholas Day. After returning home the head of the household took the bowl filled with holy water and aspersed all of his property in order to defend it and make it prosper.

St. Nicholas Day for many centuries was one of the main holidays in Western Ukraine. Women baked for this day round cookies called ‘mykolaychyky’ with different fillings. These cookies are put under the children pillows as a sweet presents for the holiday and are given to all the friends and relatives wishing joy and health.

Nowadays preparations and presents

Shortly before the holiday Ukrainian children (often with the help of their parents) write letters to Saint Nicholas in which all their dearest wishes are listed – material (new toys or other goods) and spiritual (health and happiness for parents, relatives and friends). The fulfillment of the material wish depends on the child’s behavior during the year. For those who behaved well St. Nicholas will definitely prepare the present, and even for those who did not there will be something pleasant (sweets, for example) if they promise to make good.

St. Nicholas Day presents can be different. It is up to parents to decide what gift to put under the child’s pillow (sweets, a toy, a book etc.). Of course, most of the parents consider their children wishes when they choose a gift.

At nurseries and schools children with teachers’ help prepare different sketches, sing songs and recite poems about Saint Nicholas.

For those children who don’t have parents different charity organizations prepare St. Nicholas Day gifts.

Concerts and celebrations with dancing, singing and performing are hold on the eve of December 19, and every child gets his present for holiday.

St. Nicholas Day in Ukraine is a really bright and joyful holiday. Parents and grandparents tell the children story of St. Nicholas life and teach them to be as kind, laborious, charitable, honest as Saint Nicholas was.

Ukrainians believe that in the night of December 19 all their sincere wishes will be heard and fulfilled.

FOR MY 6th GRADE STUDENTS

SPORTS

PLAY

The kinds of Sports ( I )

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2018-11-11

The kinds of Sports ( II )

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International Day of Families

The International Day of Families, annually held on May 15, celebrates the importance of families and the work started during the International Year of Families.

International Day of Families promotes the importance of a healthy and well-balanced family. International Day of Families promotes the importance of a healthy and well-balanced family.

What Do People Do?

A wide range of events are organized at local, national and international levels. These include: workshops, seminars and policy meeting for public officials; exhibitions and organized discussions to raise awareness of the annual theme; educational sessions for children and young people; and the launch of campaigns for public policies to strengthen and support family units. In some countries, tool kits are created to help people organize celebrations aimed at a particular section of the population, such as school children or young adults.

Public Life

The International Day of Families is a global observance and not a public holiday.

Background

The year 1994 was proclaimed as the International Year of Families by the United Nations. This was a response to changing social and economic structures, which have affected and still affect the structure and stability of family units in many regions of the globe. The International Day of Families, on May 15, is an occasion to reflect on the work started during 1994 and to celebrate the importance of families, people, societies and cultures around the world. It has been held every year since 1995.

Symbols

The symbol of the International Day of Families consists of a solid green circle with an image in red. The image consists of elements of simple drawings of a heart and a house. This indicates that families are the center of society and provide a stable and supporting home for people of all ages.

Sun Day

Sun Day (May 3, 1978) was designated by Jimmy Carter President of United States of America  specifically devoted to advocacy for solar power,following a joint resolution by Congress. It was modelled on the highly successful Earth Day of April 22, 1970. International Sun day has been celebrated over the past seven years on May 3, 2008. The day is sponsored and celebrated by NASA. Its Sun-Earth connection education forum organizes and coordinates events to highlight NASA Sun-Earth Connection research and discoveries. Sun-Earth Day is during the March equinox. The celebration on the day is marked by the celestial events, such as total solar eclipses and the Transit of Venus, and Sun-Earth Day during the March Equinox. They participate in space science activities, demonstrations, and various interactive sessions and quiz with space scientists. One of main goals of the day is to help scientists understand the interactions between the Sun and the Earth's environment, which will definitely facilitate them to predict the Sun's activity and motion, and thus, space weather conditions.

 Let there always be sunshine!

On April 13th, 1954, the American singer Bill Haley recorded the song “Rock Around the Clock”. This was the beginning of a new era, the era of “rock ‘n’ roll”.

The rock’n’Roll’s essence is made up of a series of immortal artists: Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley or the Fab Four – The Beatles.

Coincidentally, on April 13th 1962, The Beatles were booked as the opening act for the launch of a new club in Hamburg. The Star-Club, opened by Manfred Weissleder, had a capacity for two thousand people, as well as cinema-style seating. When the Beatles were booked to play there, Neil Aspinall left his job to become the Beatles’ permanent road manager. So The Beatles returned to Hamburg by plane to play from 13 April to 31 May 1962.

Nowadays, the term “rock ‘n’ roll” now has at least two different meanings, both in common usage: referring to the first wave of music that originated in the US in the 1950s and would later develop into the more encompassing international style known as “rock music”, and as a term simply synonymous with the rock music and culture in the broad sense.

International   Children's     Book Day

Since 1967, on  Hans Christian Andersen's birthday, 2 April, International Children's Book Day (ICBD) is celebrated to inspire a love of reading and to call attention to children's books.

1 April is International Bird Day, which marks the beginning of their return to northern parts from their wintering sites. On 19 March 1902, various countries agreed to the International Convention for the Protection of Birds Useful to Agriculture came into force, which more than a dozen states signed. It entered into force on 12 December 1905. On 18 October 1950, in Paris, diplomats signed the International Convention for the Protection of Birds, which replaced the previous document.

1 April is also associated with children’s events centred on birds, arranged in 1894 by a teacher from a small American town of Oil City PA, Charles Babcock. Soon Bird Day was widely-held as a national holiday throughout the USA. 

The theme of the holiday is the conservation of bird species diversity and the preservation and increase of their populations. This day marks the first return of migratory birds from their wintering sites. The rooks are the first to come, then, the wild geese, ducks, cranes, and gulls arrive. In April, the thrushes, robins, greenfinches, chaffinches, finches, and buntingsreturn. Traditionally, at this time, in anticipation of the arrival of the birds, people hang birdhouses and build artificial nests. Birders warn that if birds go extinct, it’d cause an environmental catastrophe, with unpredictable effects upon human civilisation. They tell us that such obliteration of fauna would cause irreparable damage to biological diversity.

More and more countries are involved in the annual selection of the “Bird of the Year” . National social and professional organisations concerned with the protection of birds take part in this “election”. Typically, the choice of the award-winning bird is due to different reasons… a bird is popular in this-or-that country, with close-links to a national culture, or it’s a bird species under threat of extinction, to draw attention to its species preservation, or it’s a bird chosen to demonstrate the diversity of bird life. Clearly, the Bird of the Year reflects the success of national response measures to avian protection and successfully promotes the achievements of environmental organisations and the success of their programmes.

 Ornithologists and ecologists select the spotlighted Bird of the Year, and they conduct seminars, publish literature and brochures on this kind of bird, to promote conservation and care of them. 

World Theatre Day was initiated in 1961 by the International Theatre Institute (ITI). It is celebrated annually on the 27th March by ITI Centres and the international theatre community. Various national and international theatre events are organized to mark this occasion. One of the most important of these is the circulation of the World Theatre Day International Message through which at the invitation of ITI, a figure of world stature shares his or her reflections on the theme of Theatre and a Culture of Peace. The first World Theatre Day International Message was written by Jean Cocteau (France) in 1962. It was first in Helsinki, and then in Vienna at the 9th World Congress of the ITI in June 1961 that President Arvi Kivimaa proposed on behalf of the Finnish Centre of the International Theatre Institute that a World Theatre Day be instituted. The proposal, backed by the Scandinavian centres, was carried with acclamation.

Merry Christmas!