Holi!

Our last day of co-op is upon us! For this last celebration, we will be inviting everyone at our end of co-op celebration to join in the festivities.
Here is what we are going to do. After all of the other festivities have ended, the group will make any necessary pitstops and gather all of our belongings and exit the building to the field (where the witches frolicked for Walpurgisnacht). We will NOT be re-entering the building. The clean-up crew will be cleaning up while we are outside.
Traditionally, white is worn for Holi. It won't be white for long though, so keep that in mind. I am thinking we will have a large white shirt to put over clothes that can be stripped off before leaving. Again, we will NOT be re-entering the building after Holi.
I am going to be using non-toxic powdered tempera paints and I am going to be mixing it with corn starch. Hopefully, this will work for the majority of our allergy sufferers. I am not sure how we can avoid the flying powder, so asthmatics be aware!
I am going to bring swim goggles for my kids, just to avoid the possibility of an eye injury. 

Holi is the Hindu festival that welcomes the Spring and celebrates the new life and energy of the season. Although Holi has religious roots, not much religious activity is involved in its celebration.
Holi is the most energetic Indian festival, filled with fun and good humor; even the strict rules of separation between castes are abandoned.
Holi is also called 'The Festival of Colors', and people celebrate the festival by smearing each other with paint, and throwing colored powder and dye around in an atmosphere of great good humor.

The Legend of Prahalad and Holika

This is the main Holi legend. Holika was a female demon, and the sister of Hiranyakashyap, the demon king. Hiranyakashyap considered himself ruler of the Universe, and higher than all the gods.
Prahalad was the king's son. His father hated him because Prahalad was a faithful devotee of the god Vishnu.
One day the king asked him "Who is the greatest, God or I?"
"God is," said the son, "you are only a king."
The king was furious and decided to murder his son.
But the king's attempts at murder didn't work too well. Prahalad survived being thrown over a cliff, being trampled by elephants, bitten by snakes, and attacked by soldiers.
So the king asked his sister, Holika, to kill the boy.
Holika seized Prahalad and sat in the middle of a fire with the boy on her lap.
Holika had been given a magic power by the gods that made her immune to fire, so she thought this was a pretty good plan, and Prahalad would burn to death while she remained cool.
But it's never wise to take gods' gifts for granted! Because Holika was using her gift to do something evil, her power vanished and she was burned to ashes. Prahalad stayed true to his God, Vishnu, and sat praying in the lap of his demon aunt. Vishnu protected him, and Prahalad survived.
Shortly afterwards, Vishnu killed King Hiranyakashyap and Prahad ruled as a wise king in his father's place.

Moral

The moral of the story is that good always wins over evil, and those who seek to torment the faithful will be destroyed.
To celebrate the story, large bonfires are burned during Holi. In many parts of India, a dummy of Holika is burned on the fire.

Reference: BBC Religions  http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/holydays/holi_1.shtml

Πάσχα, Paskha

We know this holiday as Easter. In the U.S., the celebration is going to be this weekend. However, we are traveling to Greece this week and the celebration is not until April 15.
Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover by much of its symbolism, as well as by its position in the calendar. In many languages, the words for "Easter" and "Passover" are etymologically related.
 Easter is the most sacred observance in the Greek Orthodox faith. Preparations and customs remain some of the most traditional in modern Greek life.
Much of the celebration is centered around the food. We will be taking some traditionally red dyed eggs and decorating them with gold.We will also play a traditional Greek game with the eggs. You can see at the end of that video how the game is played. Although, the eggs are supposed to be hit head on head or bottom on bottom, not sideways like one of them. I wonder whose egg will last the longest?
Iconography is very important in the Orthodox church. We will be making replicas of icons. Members of the Orthodox church are highly protective of these images and their importance, so we are doing them for purposes of looking at the style of the images and how they would be presented, not for worship purposes. You will notice when you click on the link to the Icons, that all of them are in a very similar style called Byzantine. It is highly stylized with the intention of taking you to another, higher place.

Kodomo No Hi

I hope everybody had a great Spring Break!
This week we will be venturing to Japan to celebrate Kodomo No Hi, or Children's Day. Traditions for this holiday include flying carp windsocks, displaying Kintaro figures, and Kabuto. We will also be trying out mochi!

Preparing for our Purim celebration...

The kids and I made bowling pin versions of Haman's sons to knock down tomorrow.

Purim

This week our class is traveling to Israel to celebrate Purim. 

Purim is a Jewish festival which commemorates the deliverance of Jews from Persia and from the efforts of Haman to destroy them, as recorded in the book of Esther. 

During the Megilla (or scroll) readings, children often dress up as their favorite characters in the story and it is traditional to use noisemakers to drown out the "evil" name of Haman whenever it is read. Purim has a carnival-like atmosphere. 

 

St. Walpurga's Night (Walpurgisnacht)

Besom

I have been puzzling about mass producing besoms for our class this Thursday. I thought I was going to have to go out and forage for grasses and sticks, but Dollar Tree to the rescue! I found 5 ft. long bamboo poles and bunches of "broom grass". So far, I have only enough for 10 brooms, but they went together quickly.

 This is what the finished besom looks like.

 OK, so if Duct Tape  EXISTED in the medieval ages, witches would have TOTALLY used it. I laid the broom grass along the duct tape so that it was able to stick to it, then I wrapped it around the bamboo. Then I took another strip of tape and wrapped it again to help seal off that top edge.

Walpurgisnacht

Wow...that is a big word! It's German for Walpurga's Night.
On Walpurgisnacht, legend says that witches gather at the foot of the great Blocksberg Mountain in Germany. Like a lot of Pagan holidays in Europe, this one has found its way into Christianity and is named for St. Walpurga.
This celebration, for us, will feel like it belongs in the fall and not the spring. Walpurgisnacht falls exactly six months after All Hallows Eve (Halloween) and it is very similar. We will dress up as witches and ride our brooms!

St. George's Day

We had so much fun with our Tea today! 

St. George's Day

St. George Day

This week we will be celebrating St. George Day in England.  Everyone knows the story of St. George and the Dragon, right? St. George has so much mythology surrounding him, that it is hard to sort through it all and figure out if any of it was even true!
One thing is certain though, he was a very popular legend. He represented all that was brave, honorable and gallant. This is probably why the boy scouts in England chose him as their patron saint and someone who they could model their lives after and look up to.
We will be celebrating our St. George Day with a solemn parade, a tea and a very short re-enactment of the St. George and the Dragon story. (I will need volunteers to play the Fierce Dragon, the Kindly King, a Petite Princess, St. George and the Doctor).
Our menu for this week includes tea, sandwiches, scones, lady fingers and Madeleines (the last two are cookies).
Don't forget! We are going to be recognizing everyone that is in a Youth Organization, like Scouts, Roots and Shoots and any others that you might be a member of.  I know of a few that will be wearing pieces from more than one organization.

A great video about Carnival

Samba!

Carnival

This week we are going all the way to South America to celebrate Carnival in Brazil.This is a really colorful event! Brazil's culture is a mixture of Native American, African, and Portuguese and you can see all of it in the festivities.
Here is a video of children celebrating Carnival.

Here is a video of a traditional parade. Notice all of the different kinds of costumes! There is a flag bearer (for the school), the dancers, the musicians and the paraders. There will also be a lady that is very scantily clad for each school. She is there just for show!

Here is a link that shows a group of kids playing the Samba rhythms on drums.
 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkbm40_samba-drums-for-kids_music


OUR theme will be the Brazilian Rainforest. If you have a costume that looks like it could have been inspired by the Rainforest, wear it! My kids are going to make a flag, but we can have more than one if Flag Bearer is your calling...make a flag!
We will be bringing back the rhythm instruments. So, yes, it will be another loud one. For those that are sensitive to that, don't despair! The next class will be much calmer....we are going to England having tea to celebrate St. George's Day.
Vejo-te em breve!

We have pictures!

Happy New Year!

What better way to start off our new semester than a celebration of the New Year! Our first celebration is coming to us from China. There are a lot of traditions associated with the Chinese New Year and all of them have meaning to the Chinese people.
Even the decorations have meaning! We will have Chinese Couplets, Lanterns, Riddles, and Good Luck Symbols.
Of course, what is a Chinese New Year with out the Lion Dance? Even though we don't actually know HOW to do the Lion Dance, we will have fun playing the drum and wearing the costume.
We will also experience some foods like the Chinese New Year Lucky Candy Box  , oranges and dumplings (but don't get your hopes up, I am not hiding money inside of food!)
No Chinese New Year would be complete without Hong Bao and firecrackers.
Wearing RED would be a very lucky thing for all of us to do during Chinese New Year.
After class, I will post pictures to the blog so our families can celebrate with us.

The Chinese New Year Story

Long ago, the world was not a safe place; monsters dominated the world. There was one horrifying monster that came out on the same day each year to eat people. This monster was named Nian, and the people marked the end of a year by his visits to the human civilization. That is where the Chinese word for year came from.

This monster was the most feared by the people because every time it came out, whole villages would be destroyed at a time. So, every time the monster came, people would huddle together in their homes and stay up all night, wanting not to be eaten. This happened for many years until a wise man thought up a plan to scare the monster away.

This man proposed that the people should light bamboo. The bamboo would crack and make a lot of noise, possibly scaring the monster away. The villagers thought this was a very good idea and started to light the bamboo. The noise was tremendous. The monster was scared by the loud noise and ran back to its cave without not eating any people.

The next morning, everyone was present. They were all elated. The people congratulated each other for executing the plan effectively. So, from then on, people stayed up late, lit firecrackers (to simulate the lighting of the bamboo), and congratulated each other when the new year came. 

Taken from  Thinkquest .