2009.03./2. - St. Patrick's and Other Days

Winter just has no chance with Annie.
Whatever comes down, must go right back up ...


And Julia has no time for such games ... rather starts yet another book to read.









Annie's pre-school arranged a sleepover at school for her class.
They invited every child to bring a soft toy for comfort.
They didn't specify the toy's size.
So Annie took Daniel's moose.
I got to carry him since he exceeded Annie's size.

The other highlight at school was St Patrick's Day. This is the tray we put together with green food to share at school.

Did you know ?
St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17, his religious feast day and the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over a thousand years.

St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is one of Christianity's most widely known figures. After his ordination as a priest, he was sent to Ireland with a dual mission-to minister to Christians already living in Ireland and to begin to convert the Irish.

It has long been recounted that, during his mission in Ireland, St. Patrick once stood on a hilltop and with only a wooden staff by his side, banished all the snakes from Ireland. In fact, the island nation was never home to any snakes. The "banishing of the snakes" was really a metaphor for the eradication of pagan ideology from Ireland and the triumph of Christianity. Within two hundred years of Patrick's arrival, Ireland was completely Christianized.

The first St. Patrick's Day parade took place not in Ireland, but in the United States. Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City on March 17, 1762. Along with their music, the parade helped the soldiers to reconnect with their Irish roots, as well as fellow Irishmen serving in the English army.
In 1848, several New York Irish aid societies decided to unite their parades to form one New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade.


Today, that parade is the world 's oldest civilian parade and the largest in the United States, with over 150,000 participants. Each year, nearly three million people line the one-and-a-half mile parade route to watch the procession, which takes more than five hours. Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Savannah also celebrate the day with parades including between 10,000 to 20,000 participants.

Celebrations are generally themed around all things Irish and, by association, the colour green. Some cities paint the traffic stripe of their parade routes green. Chicago is also famous for a somewhat peculiar annual event: dyeing the Chicago River green.

The tradition started in 1962, when city pollution-control workers used dyes to trace illegal sewage discharges and realized that the green dye might provide a unique way to celebrate the holiday. That year, they released 100 pounds of green vegetable dye into the river—enough to keep it green for a week!

In modern-day Ireland, St. Patrick's Day has traditionally been a religious occasion. In fact, up until the 1970s, Irish laws mandated that pubs be closed on March 17. Beginning in 1995, however, the Irish government began a national campaign to use St. Patrick's Day as an opportunity to drive tourism and showcase Ireland to the rest of the world. Last year, close to one million people took part in Ireland 's St. Patrick's Festival in Dublin, a multi-day celebration featuring parades, concerts, outdoor theater productions, and fireworks shows.

Speaking of the color green - even without St Patrick Julia spotted something she desperately wants to have now.
A "Bamboo Wall".
She was just absolutely fascinated by this wallpaper at FIS.
Unfortunately, even going through such a discovery could not prevent her from coming down with a mean virus later that day.
It gave her strong headaches and loss of appetite for a week.

Luckily, she took the time to play with Katie before she got sick.

Annie and Daniel engaged themselves in potion making with a Harry Potter Set.





Then Annie got on with her next architectural model ...



... and I visited a special event - a private show of a Dancing Club which specialized on Eastern European folk dance.

The Group not only takes months to learn traditional dance routines from selected national dancers but also try to acquire all the costumes and accessoire from the countries directly. I was amazed and taken by the vitality, cheerfullness and the wide geographical coverage with informative narratives just like the rest of the audience.

Hungary

Bulgaria

Poland







Geographical exception
Scotland