Finnish, English and Czech Christmas

During Christmas class of English Mrs. Stráská prepared for us a little bit of Finish culture and language because she has been the coordinator of the project Comenius with our partner school in Finnish Jyväskylä for two years.

We had the opportunity to get to know something about traditional Finnish Christmas. There is a huge difference between our Czech Christmas and Finnish, especially in meals, sweets and celebrations.

In Finland they have a special "Santa Claus". His name is Joulupukki. He lives in Lapland in the north of Finland. His name consists of two parts. The first part is Joulu and it means Christmas and the second part is from a verb nuuttipukki. Nuuttipukki is one of the old traditions of Finland when people wore clothes from goat skins.It was excited to get to know something from Finnish language, because Czech and English language are completely different from Finnish. We tried to match Finnish and English basic words connected with Christmas. We could listen to the traditional Christmas song Sylvian Joululaulu and look at a beautiful book about Finnish Christmas painted by a famous Finnish painter Mauri Kunnas. Finnish class was a big upgrading of normal English classes. I am sure we will remember this new experience!

Tereza Polednová, Ivana Novotná, I.B a kvinta class

Jitka Stráská

The lesson was prepared for 89 students)

Nicodem's night

Every month on 3rd Sunday people can come to the Church of St. John of Nepomuk and pray. On Sunday the church is open from 8 pm. People who came the last Sunday before  Christmas were not speaking, they just came, sat and prayed there. There was only one candle in the middle of the church, so it was very dark. The atmosphere was very quiet and peaceful.

If somebody wants, he or she can come here to experience his or her spiritual experience

like me on that impressive night.

Jakub Klement

Concert with candles

On the 3rd Advent Sunday  at 4 p.m.there was a concert in the Church of St. John of Nepomuk. The concert was called Concert with candles. There were really lots of candles and the atmospere was beautiful. In that church the acoustics is very good  and this concert showed this positive advantage again. Singers and musicians were teachers from the Art School in Žďár nad Sázavou. They played classical music composed by famous composers such as Vivaldi etc. We could hear singing, playing the piano, oboe, flute and violin. People were enthusiastic, they were applauding cheerfully. I also liked the concert, it was nice to be in that magnificent church and listen to the very impressive performance of teachers.

Michaela Mužátková

Wirkko magazine continues

We don't have enough space for new articles, so there is a new blog. If  you want to read some of older articles, see our old blog at  http://wirkko.blogspot.cz/ .