New traditions in Germany

1.   Halloween: This All-hallows-evening haunting party has an Irish origin and was taken to the USA through Irish immigrants in the 19^th century. It used to be an ancient Celtic thanksgiving custom. In the USA it changed to the tradition we know now – including pumpkins and children walking from one house to another asking for “trick or treat”. At the end of the 1990s (about 20 years ago) the custom was introduced to Germany. It was heavily promoted by shops and US American TV series and turned into a regular festivity during the following years. It is especially popular among teenagers.

2.   Saint Valentine’s Day: This day became popular in Germany through US American soldiers after the 1950s. This day is heavily promoted through flower shops and other traders.

3.    Hen and Stag party: The German tradition used to be the (Polterabend) where friends of the wedding couple meet to celebrate and do some jokes with the couple. In England and the USA those events took part with separated sexes. Since the 1980s they became more popular and were copied in Germany because of TV and movie examples.

4.   Oktoberfest: The original Oktoberfest takes place in Munich. But lots of towns are copying it nowadays – including people wearing traditional Bavarian costumes (or what they believe to be traditional) even far outside Bavaria. Spin-offs spread all over the world even to China, Canada and Brazil.

A visit to history

The common heritage also includes documents. The Frankfurt Institute for Town History (Institut für Stadtgeschichte) is one of the places responsible for the preservation and accessibility of historical documents.

The Frankfurt copy of the "Golden Bull" is an official World Documentary Heritage of the Frankfurt City Archive. This part of the Constitution of the Holy Roman Empire of 1356 regulated the election of the German kings.

The Erasmus Project Group of the Offene Schule Babenhausen had the opportunity to visit not only the archive but also the restoration laboratory and to learn about the difficulties of and possibilities in preserving old documents.

Due to changes in the production of paper, documents from the last 150 years are much more difficult to obtain than much older objects. It remains open whether everything will still be readable or accessible in 100 years' time. Perhaps our generation will be as badly documented as the early Middle Ages.

World Heritage in Germany – an exhibition

More than 170 students of the eighth year explored the UNESCO World Heritage in Germany. In English-language presentations the young people introduced themselves to known and unknown World Heritage Sites near Babenhausen, such as the Torhalle in Lorsch, the Limes or the Messel pit. A few objects had crept onto the list of students who are not part of the world heritage - that the Berlin Wall is not one of them seemed to be wrong to some of the eighth-graders.

Of course, Cologne Cathedral or the Wartburg Castle were honoured - but more unknown places were also presented to the pupils. Even the documentary heritage was considered - Benz's motor vehicle patent, the Nebra Sky Disk or the fairy tale collection of the Brothers Grimm were presented as well as steelworks, old towns or the Wadden Sea.

On the occasion of the Open Day of the Joachim Schumann School, the results were made accessible to the general public in an exhibition. The young people presented their work to interested parents on posters. Previously, some of the presentations had already been presented to the partner schools. Some of the eighth graders had the opportunity to present their work at an international project meeting in Lisbon.

Missing heritage in Barcelona

Our students have been researching on the missing heritage of our city. This a video where you can see what they have come across with

The best three German traditions we want to preserve for the future (another opinion)

The best three German traditions we want to preserve for the future

We needed a long time to decide the three most important German traditions we want to preserve in the future. In Germany there are more than three important traditions and we like the most of them but carnival (in Germany ‘Fasching’ or ‘Fastnacht’), Oktoberfest and Christmas (in Germany ‘Weihnachten’) are really the best ones!

Fasching, Fastnacht:

Fasching is a custom with that the Germans celebrate the time before the fasting period. The fasting period starts on Ash Wednesday. The official beginning is the 11th November at 11:11 o’clock but we actual celebrate it on the days before Ash Wednesday. Children have on these days no school.

The most important thing on Fasching are the costumes. Everybody wears a colorful costume. It can be everything you want , for example an animal, a princess or a playing card. There are many parades in almost all towns and cities. Peoples who are members of the parade throw sweets or distribute drinks to the viewers. The members of the parade built their own carriages which fit to their costumes. Every city or town have their own Faschings-Princess or Faschings-Prince (royal couple) and a youth royal couple. At the end of a parade the best costume group got voted from the committee . Teenagers and younger adults often are drunk.

 The Oktoberfest:

The Oktoberfest is a traditional and famous folk festival in Germany. The original and real Oktoberfest takes place in Munich but in almost every town the people celebrate this festival too but much smaller (this became fashion in the last 20 years).

About 200 years ago the first Oktoberfest was celebrated because of the marriage of Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese. Because of the marriage there were many celebrations and parties but the last one , a horse race, was the origin of the Oktoberfest.

Today, more than 6mil people visit the original Oktoberfest in Munich. For the Oktoberfest it’s typical to wear a traditional costume/garb, to drink beer, to eat pretzels or Bavarian veal sausage and to dance on special way. Women wear a dirndl and men wear leather trousers. There are many fun rides on the original Oktoberfest and sometimes on the regional and smaller celebrations too. The original Oktoberfest you call ‘Wiesn’ too.

Many people think that the Germans always look and act like on the Oktoberfest but this only a partiality. Actually the Oktoberfest is only a regional celebration.

Christmas:

I think everybody knows Christmas but there are many differences between the different countries and cultures. There are even differences in every family on the world depending on their nationality, family members, religions etc…

In Germany the most people are Christians (me too) so on Christmas Eve they go to the church. After that they go home and have a big dinner with their family or friends. Later they sing Christmas songs and after singing there is the gift giving. The presents are laying under a decorated Christmas tree. For many people Christmas is only gift giving but actually it’s for celebrating the birth Jesus Christ and spending time with your family.

In Germany we celebrate Christmas on the 24th of December.

Franziska

Traditions to be kept (a survey among German students)

We've been asking 58 students (Age 14-15) to name tradtions they want to be kept. The result was surprising - Christmas seems to be more important than birthday. Is it because we didn't mention traditions and they just forgot about? Sports were also mentioned very often, but we didn't count that as a tradition.

What's so important about mudflats?

The Wadden Sea

A lug worm - one of the iconic animals of the mudflats. It is one of the small five!

The Wadden Sea World Heritage site covers around 11,500 square kilometres along the North Sea coast and has a length of around 500 kilometres. The Wadden Sea has been included on the World Heritage List under all three criteria: It is of unique importance both geologically and due to its ecological processes and its great diversity of species. In addition, the Wadden Sea is the largest continuous mudflat habitat in the world.

South beach - Wilhelmshaven (Germany)

Geologically it is a very young landscape. Only at the end of the Ice Age before 10000 did the North Sea and the Wadden Sea emerge in their present form. About 10,000 species of living creatures use the shallow sea, which exposes countless mud and sandbanks at low tide. It is an extremely important resting place for migratory birds - during the migration season about 12 million birds pass through the Wadden Sea and take a break there.

A forest as natural heritage - Old beech forest as UNESCO Site in Germany

Old beech forests

Beech forest in Hainich National Park (Thuringia)

Since 2007, the old beech forests in Central Europe have been an official UNESCO natural heritage site. In 2011 five old German beech forests were added to the list. Germany is located in the centre of the beech distribution area. Such forests are (if the soil is not too dry or too moist) the typical forest form in Germany. 26% of all beeches worldwide grow in Germany. Only a few of these forests in Germany have been preserved in a more or less natural state - they are now listed as World Heritage. Old beech forests are characterised by a very high diversity of species - up to 10,000 different animal species have been identified. The natural heritage includes forests in several European countries - but the forests in Germany are special: they are the only lowland beech forests in the world that still exist. Part of this heritage lies in our federal state of Hesse - the Kellerwald. There 40% of the beeches are older than 120 years, some trees are even 260 years old.

The Messel fossile pit - the first German UNESCO natural heritage site

The Messel pit

 In 1995 the fossil site Grube Messel near Darmstadt was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List as Germany's first natural heritage site. 48 million years ago there was a water-filled volcanic crater at the site of today's mine. In the deep layers of the crater lake there was practically no oxygen. Therefore, animal bodies and plant remains could not decompose and remained excellently preserved as fossils in the very fine-grained sediment.

The unique quality of the full-body skeletons, including body outline, hair, feathers and even stomach contents have led to the pit’s  inclusion on the World Heritage List.

During the Eocene period Messel lay in a tropical rainforest. Crocodiles and a large number of bats are typical finds in the oil shale of the mine. However, the site is famous for its primeval horses. The oil shale, which contains a lot of water, makes it necessary to transfer the finds to synthetic resin. Without this preparation technique, the valuable fossils would be destroyed by drying.

During the late 1980s, the mine was planned to be used as a waste dump. Strong protest of the people saved the site as a natural monument. However, the real treasures can only be discovered in a museum - either in the Visitor Centre at the mine or, for example, in the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt.

New traditions - World café discussion

During our meeting in Lentvaris one of the topics we were dicussing were traditions in our countries and their changes. We used the world café method for this purpose - and here are some of our results:

1.       There are new traditions from other countries we adopt. Find out reasons fort hat.

·         We want become modern but we don’t want to share our traditions to other countires

·         Because of history

·         We are tired oft he old traditions and we want to try the foreign ones

·         To lose in people

·         Because we are more interested in foreign traditions than in ours (we don’t know all of our traditons and we don’t want to learn them because we think that they are not important)

·         #New technologies help us to discover an traditions around the world. For instance with just a click we can know traditions from the USA, Asia, Africa…

·         One oft he things that makes people adapt new traditions is consumarism

·         Because we changed the religions

·         Because we have interst on what the other countries are doing.

·         #The fact that two countires or more communicate takes them to adopt other habits and traditions.

·         #Working in another country or migarate take people to share their traditions and adopt new ones.

2.       Name traditions of your country you would not mind becoming lost + why would you agree to lose them?

·         Folk songs (some of them) – they are boring for a younger audience

·         Bull fighting – too much gore, dangerus E

·         Pao por Deus – 1st halloween has become more popoular 2nd. Young people aren’t as religious as before.

·         PT Touradas (bullfighting) – inflicts unesscessary pain on the bull picke

·         PT Horse competition on iice – it’s very dangerous for horses and people

·         The Octoberfest – the people drinking to much alcohol and maybe it could happened bad things

·         Pasninkas – most people don’t know the meaning o fit and they don#t like it.

·         25th of April – independence of Portugal

3.       Imagine that you are asked to work fort he protection of your country’s heritage for half a year like the obligatory military service in some countries. Which kind of work would you prefer?

·         Social media work

·         Informing other countries about how important our heritage is

·         Informing people from other countries

·         Talk with kids about our heritage#

·         Become a politician so you can cahnge something more successful

·         Make a group of people who always tries to protect our heritage. Also invite the people

·         Make events to remind us of our heritage (competitions, concerts, etc.)

·         Clean the statues

·         Teach about our heritage in schools

·         Free tours to our  heritage sites

·         Make projects like Erasmus +

·         Attract tourists tot he heritage site

·         Promoting heritage sites on tickets of other heritage sites

·         Learning how to kee p the traditions and spreading them

·         Inviting famous people to show us or remind us about our heritage thus promoting it

4.       Find similarities and differences in your country’s traditions.

·         Germany, Spain and Portugal have an easter rabbit – except Lithuania (Easter Grandma)

·         All countries have St. Johns day except Germany (St. Martins)

·         Paint eggs on Eater (Germany and Lithuania)

·         Everybody except Lithuanina celebrates Halloween

·         We celebrate Easter at the same time

·         We share: Christamas, New Year, All Saints day, Valentine’s day, Labour day, Shrovetide Tuesday, Three Kings day, Toothe underneath pillow

5.       How do you annd can you take part in the preservation of traditions that you want to pass over to future generations?

·         Make wikipedia texts

·         Build a museum

·         Make a fire in the people’s heart that they will want to use traditions

·         Just do the traditions (Start again)

·         Try to teach other people and countires about our traditions

·         Speak with older people and make events. Ask them how they want to do that.

·         Make old traditions in a modern way to common old and young people together

·         Making advertising

·         Make videos for generation that grows

·         Tell children

·         Make events about traditions

·         We can speak with older poeple and make a book of traditions that were in the past

·         Take action in preserving traditions

·         Write a book about tradtiions

·         Tell about it for your children

·         Make a song

·         Adapt traditions tot he new agges.

·         Celebrate the traditions every year and this way we won’t lose them

·         Create a game of traditions

·         Celebrate the traditions every year and this way we won’t lose them.