European customs and traditions

As part of a Comenius Project entitled ‘European customs and traditions’, a group of students, together with teachers from the Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary School, were recently hosted on the island of Kefalonia, Greece. The project is funded by the EU Programmes Agency under the Lifelong LearningProgramme.

Participants from Italy,Germany and Finland involved in the project were also hosted by the Greek students and their families.

The students participated in a number of presentations and workshops, where they were exposed to and discussed cultural and traditional issues related to their researched topics: Christmas, Easter, weddings, funerals, baptism, Holy Communion and Confirmation.

They also compared research findings from questionnaires filled in by peers from each school. The questions focused on various issues regarding the same topics.

These provided information on how a number of youths fromparticipating countries view these customs and traditions and whether they continue to value their importance within their own culture.

A number of cultural visits to important historical sites were also included in the programme.

The same project also provided the opportunity for another group of students and teachers to visit Saronno, Italy, where they were also hosted by families.

During this trip, students from various partner countries worked on regional customs and traditions. The selected regional feasts by theMaltese students were the local feast, the feast of Imnarja and carnival.

Various workshops were held in which groups, made up of students from each country, compared their school systems and created what they called a ‘survival dictionary’, in which they included vocabulary and expressions derived from topics of interest, such as music, sport and fashion.

Each chosen word or expression was translated and written in each of the languages represented by the participants. The contingent was also taken on a trip to Milan and on a boat ride on Lake Como.

In January, a group of A level Home Economics students will be travelling to Kangasala in Finland. These students will be discussing national and public holidays.

They will also be engaged in cookery sessions whereby each country is to present a number of traditional local dishes which will eventually be included in an international recipe book.

This two-year project comes to an end during the final mobility which will be held in Zulpich,Germany.

Students travelling to Germany will participate in a local festival open to the public. Students will have to represent Malta through various media that would help to promote it as an interesting and unique place to visit.