Happy Graduates

I am sorry that I haven’t written until today but maybe there were nothing interesting to write… Or maybe there happened too many things and I had no time. Everyone can choose the version for himself ;)
The last thing which we prepared together in our class was the graduate event for the 3rd classes of our Highschool. I think that from the beginning of April we started to plan it. We couldn’t take an easy decision but finally we decided to prepare show consisting from two songs, short skit and photo album. We were proud that we hadn’t to do so many tries as we thought. After several meetings, little changing in text and music we sang pretty well, I think :)
One day before we spent a little time on preparing the place, creating some decoration, etc.
Of course, whole experience was very funny and important to us, but we were little stressed. I think that some of us can’t wait the day, when someone will prepare day like this for us… But I am not sure if we should be so hurry ;)

Open Days and English Lesson

       We are after two most important events in our school. We have been preparing for them like crazy. First of them – “open door” in our highschool. It was so much fun! We had as many as 8 groups! At the beginning I was telling the story about our lovely class and about interesting things, that could happen to anyone of future students in our school. After that my friends prepared different experiments, which they showed later. Every group had something different. Afterwards we were waiting for people from our audience. When someone wanted to answer on the question from quiz about those experiences, could receive some award. I have to say that none of this wouldn’t take place if our Professor hadn’t helped us! :)

      The second of these important „events” was today’s lesson of English. WOW! There were wonderful shows, songs, competitions! Everyone prepared something marvellous J Our group organized “karaoke”. We were little afraid of this, but it was quite good. Most brave people wanted to take a part and it was wonderful because everyone from audience sang with us.

In general…. It was great!!!

Easter Traditions

It is almost one week after Easter but I would like to finish my plan and write you something about Easter traditions. Almost two weeks ago we spent two hours in heritage-park in Lublin and we found out many different things about traditions from the past. After this day I decided to find something more and I was surprised how many beautiful traditions we still have in some parts of Poland. Also when I tried to find something on websites in English language, the most important part of this articles was about polish traditions. The funny thing for me was to see pronunciation of the word Święconka:  [ɕvʲɛnˈtsɔnka]. I’m sure that foreign people have some “little” problems with expressing this word :)

When I started to write this I found out that to write about everything I will need one week and 100 pages so I decided to put here most important things. Everyone knows about Holy Week, about Paschal Triduum and reasons of celebrating these days so I will focus on something other.

First of all: Święconka  meaning "the blessing of the Easter baskets" on Holy Saturday. It is one of the most enduring and beloved traditions. No one can imagine Easter without this tradition. It is said to date from the 7th century in its basic form, the more modern form containing bread and eggs (symbols of resurrection and Christ) are said to datefrom the 12th century. Baskets containing a sampling of Easter foods are brought to church to be blessed on Holy Saturday. The basket is traditionally lined with a white linen or lace napkin and decorated with sprigs of boxwood (bukszpan), the typical Easter evergreen. The three-part blessing prayers specifically address the various contents of the baskets, with special prayers for the meats, eggs, cakes and breads. The priest then sprinkles the individual baskets with holy water.

The foods in the baskets have a symbolic meaning:
-eggs - symbolise life and Christ's resurrection
-bread - symbolic of Jesus
-lamb - represents Christ
-salt - represents purification

The food blessed in the church remains untouched according to local traditions until either Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning.

Pisanka is a common name for an egg ornamented using various techniques. Originating as a pagan tradition, pisanki were absorbed by Christianity to become the traditional Easter egg. Pisanki are now considered to symbolise the revival of nature and the hope that Christians gain from faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

There are various types of pisanki, based on the technique and preparation used:

• Kraszanki (sometimes called malowanki or byczki) are made by boiling an egg in a decoction of plants or other natural products. The colour of kraszanka depends on the kind of product used (eg. brown – onion peels; pink – the juice of beet).
• Drapanki or skrobanki are made by scratching the surface of a kraszanka with a sharp tool to reveal the white of the egg shell.
• Pisanki are created by drawing on an egg shell covered with a layer of molten wax, or alternately drawing designs with wax on a bare egg. The egg is then submerged into a dye.
• Naklejanki or nalepianki are decorated with petals of elderberry, scraps of colourful paper (including wycinanki) or with patches of cloth. Popular in Łowicz and the surrounding area.
• Oklejanki or wyklejanki are decorated with bulrush pith or yarn. They are common in the Podlaskie region of Poland.

The oldest known Polish pisanki date from the 10th century, although it is probable that eggs were decorated by Slavic peoples even earlier.

In the past, only women decorated eggs. Men were not allowed to come inside the house during the process, as it was believed that they could put a spell on the eggs, and cause bad luck.

On Easter Sunday, before the ceremonial breakfast, these eggs are exchanged and shared among the family at the table. This is a symbol of friendship, similar to the sharing of the Opłatek (Christmas wafer) on Christmas Eve.

Śmigus-Dyngus is a celebration held on Easter Monday. Traditionally, boys throw water over girls and girls do the same to boys on Easter Tuesday. This is accompanied by a number of other rituals, such as making verse declarations and holding door-to-door processions, in some regions involving boys dressed as bears. The origins of the celebration are uncertain, but it may date to pagan times.

Dziady śmigustne is mostly observed in Małopolska and Mazowsze. The boys would march through the village with one of their number dressed as a bear with a bell on his head – either wearing a real bearskin (śmigus-dyngus “beggars”). The group would go from door to door collecting "gifts for the bear" before "drowning" the bear in a nearby stream or pond. This was probably an adaptation of a traditional ceremony to drown a straw figure of Marzanna, the spirit of winter. The "bears" were often invited in as they were believed to ensure that there would be a good harvest, reflecting a very ancient belief in the power of the bear to prevent evil, encourage crop growth and cure diseases.

         An Easter palm is a traditional Polish symbolic decoration associated with Palm Sunday. The ceremonial palm branch is the "most important attribute" of Palm Sunday in Poland. Communities of Polish emigrants, such as those in the United States, observe the tradition of making of Easter palms as well. Easter palms may reach as high as 10 metres.In the 2011 edition of an Easter palm competition that has been held yearly since 1958, one entry reportedly topped 36 metres, making it the tallest Easter palm on record. There are many regional variations between Easter palms in Poland. In the south of the country, willow branches of various lengths are tied together, sometimes with hazel branches or wicker as well, and topped with a large flower bouquet and other decorations, including a golden cross. In the Kurpie region, the entire length of the Easter palm is often decorated with flowers. An ethnographic museum in Kraków has over 200 Easter palms in its collection.

Of course there are many different traditions but I don’t want to bore all of you too much (I hope that it didn't happen at the beginning) so I think that I will finish on this point and next time I will write something about “tradition” in every polish highschool called “open door”.

Preparation for Easter

Today was sooooooooooooooo cold! But not enough to stay at home! This frosty, winter day we spent in the heritage-park in Lublin on the preparation of Easter breakfast. We will celebrate it tomorrow with our whole school class. One of our task was to decorate Easter eggs with wax. We were painting 30 eggs and meanwhile other group baked the sausage. Yes. Baked. Of course it should be smoked sausage but someone (I don’t want to point a finger at this person :) ) bought so small pieces that there were no possibility to put it in “smokehouse”. At about the same time rest of our group prepared Easter cake.
All this arrangments we did in different places and after all, we had to collect all these things in one cottage, in which we will eat tomorrow. Our teacher showed us our way and we hit the road. An yes. We got lost. After 10 minutes we figured out that we went in wrong direction. But! Not longer after this (only half an hour...) everything was ok and we were on place. We left our baked sausage, beautiful Easter eggs and cake. We thanked everyone for help and we went to the bus to home.
If there were not so much snow… and wind… and maybe if temperature was not so low… this day will be really wonderful! Everyone who wasn’t there can regret and everyone who was there can share opinion with us :)

Hello!

My name is Paulina. I'm 17 years old and I created this blog to share with you my thoughts about casual day in my school.

First of all... Why did I choose this school and courses with accent on biology and chemistry... It was always interesting for me to do some experiments on chemistry's lesson or learn on biology about things, that surround me. I think it's very important to know as much as you can about environment or about the way, in which your organism function.

I'll try to focus on important things for all of us and I hope that this blog will be useful and interesting. If anyone of you want to share with me about some problems or something - write me. For sure I'll try to express an opinion!