Inter- cool- tural stories Slovenia2

WATER SPRITE
At first he lived in a stinky pond in a village. From an unknown reason he moved to mount Uršlja Gora. How he succeeded we unfortunately don't know…
His pond was exactly there where there is a church today, consecrated to St. Ursula. When St. Ursula came to Mount Uršlja Gora she really liked it there, so she called Water Sprite and asked him to move his lake. Water Sprite was bored on Mount Uršlja Gora because he didn't meet anyone but shepherds all year long, and they always sang the same songs which he already knew by heart. He liked St. Ursula's idea. When he promised her to move the lake and himself to another hill, he, as a typical man, didn't think of how easy it is to promise something to a woman and how hard to fulfil it. He didn't want to carry the water on his head as a woman. Not at all! At last he was the ruler of all the waters. He kept thinking and he got an idea. At a nearby farmer, who didn't like the idea at first, he borrowed two oxen, Suri and Muri, which helped him carry the water night after night to the other hill until the pond was empty. When he finished and moved away himself, he well repaid the farmer. The oxen had a bag full of gold on each of their horns. Don't ever say that it's not worth helping Water Sprite.
And now back to the first residence of Water Sprite, the stinky pond.
A shepherd tended his flock by that pond every day. He didn't know what to do, so he sat down by the pond, threw pebbles and tried to make them leap to the other shore. When he grew weary of this, he started throwing bigger stones into the middle of the pond. He admired the circles that occured on the water. Once he threw a very big stone. Big circles occured and they didn't disappear. They got bigger and bigger as if bigger and bigger stones were falling into the water.The shepherd thought there was a storm on the bottom of the pond. A huge storm! Water Sprite!!!Water Sprite raged: »Who has knocked the spoon out of my son's hands?« The shepherd ready-wittedly pointed to a poor animal: “It was this sheep.”
Water Sprite grabbed the sheep and dragged it into the pond.
That’s how we know Water Sprite really exists.

Inter- cool- tural stories Slovenia

THE STORY ABOUT SLOVENJ GRADEC
It`s not about the real rising of the town but it stirs people`s imagination.
Once upon a time, when poeople lived together in concord and harmony, there was a big lake between Plešivec and the hill-side of western Pohorje. On one side of the wide water there was a castle and in the castle “Grad” lived a count, who had a very beautiful daughter. On the other side of the bank in a manor-house on Gradišče lived another count and his young and handsome son. By boat they often visited each other, the youngsters also in secret. One day when the contess was travelling again by boat across the water to embrance her sweet-heart, suddenly in the middle of the lake a strong north-east wind caught her, which raised high waves and turned over her boat. The young daughter drowned. The count wanted to find his daughter’s dead body at any price. They were searching for her day and night continuously for 14 days, however without success. At one point between Rahtel and the hill-side of Kremžarica the count ordered to dig through the hill and the water flew away. On the bottom of the dry lake in the middle of the arising valley he found in the mud the body of the young girl. In endless grief he ordered to build the church on the place where she drowned. Later, the town Slovenj Gradec arose around the church .

Inter- cool- tural stories Portugal

Legend of the Lady of Alcamé
In the place where today is built the chapel of the Lady of Alcamé, lived some cattle shepherds in straw tents. One day a teeny snake appeared there and one of them took off the milk of the cows and gave it to the snake. Then he started to call the snake whistling. He whistled and the snake came and he gave it milk. This happened during much time.
One day, the shepherd went to other lands where he lived for a long time. Years went by and he came back to see the place where the cattle grazed, and he remembered the snake. He decided to whistle and it appeared. But when it appeared, it has become a wild and very big snake and it started creeping around him.
As he hasn’t got any milk to give it the snake attacked him.
Very frightened he screamed at the top of his voice:
- “Our Lady, help me”.
Then Our Lady appeared, and threw a mace to the mouth of the snake and She put Her feet on the snake’s head. The snake stopped and didn’t attack the man anymore, so Our Lady saved him.
To pay homage to Our Lady who saved the man, a chapel was built in the middle of the plains near river Tejo. It was called Lady of Alcamé Chapel. Every year a pilgrimage and a procession take place from the chapel to Samora Correia.

LEGEND OF THE SOUP OF STONE

One friar walked begging some food as he was very hungry. Then he arrived at the door of a farmer, who didn’t want to give him any food. The friar was so hungry that he said with a very weak voice,” As you don’t give me any food I’m going to make a broth of stone”.
He picked up a stone from the soil, cleaned it very well and looked at it to see if it was good to make a broth. The people of the house began laughing because of this strange attitude of the friar. “Then haven’t you ever eaten a rock broth? I only can tell you that it is a good meal”, the friar said. Laughing the people of the house replied: “I want to see it”! These were the words the friar wanted to hear. After having washed the rock, he asked: “Can you lend me a pot?”
They gave him an adobe pot. He filled it with water and put down the stone inside it. “Now, if you let me to put the pan near the fire… “ They said so. As soon as the water started boiling, he said very quietly:
“With a little bit of grease, the broth would be a beauty”!
They gave him a piece of grease. The broth boiled, boiled, boiled… and everybody was astonished with what they were watching. The friar, tasted the broth and said: “Oh! It’s a little bit insipid! With a lump of salt it would be wonderful!”
So they gave him the salt. He flavoured the broth, proved it and declared: “Now, with some cabbage the broth would be eaten by the angels!”
The owner of the house went to the kitchen- garden and brought two tender cabbages.
The friar washed them and cut them to pieces and put them inside the pan.
When the cabbages were already boiled said the friar: “A bit of sausage would give it a delicious flavour!…”
They brought him a piece of it and he put it inside the pan. While it boiled, he took off of his saddlebag bread and prepared himself to eat calm and quietly….
The broth smelled so good that he ate it licking his lips! He poured out the pan but the stone remained at the bottom of the pan! The people of the house, who were staring at him asked: “Oh, Mr. Friar what about the stone?”
The friar answered: “I’ll wash it and take it with me for another time.”
And so he ate where nobody wanted to give him any food!

Inter- cool- tural stories Italy2

The poor man

There was once an old man who went around in search of alms, and fortunately had put a bag of chickpeas. So as not to show it to people he thought of leaving it over to a woman saying that it would be catch it again during the night. The woman took the bag and laid it in a room where she weaved in a beautiful cock’s company.
The old that night didn’t see. Then the cock, without the lady noticing, he ate the whole bag of chickpeas. She desperated for nothing. When the old man appeared at the end, the woman told him what had happened. The old shouted as a damned and wanted the cock. So he left with the cock. After walking a long way, he arrived in an isolated house and he asked the lady if she could keep the cock. She answered yes and put the cock in a stable where there was a pig. The day after this is that the old man appeared to recover the cock, but in the stable only some feathers were scattered on the ground. The pig ate him. Heavens, the punishment of the owner and the anger of the old! The poor man did not want to hear excuses and asked him in exchange for the pork. “What wickedness” said the woman crying, but she couldn’t do anything else that to give him the pig. After walking a long way, here is that the old man came to another house and asked the lady if she could keep the pig in the stable.
“Put him well there” she replied. “There is already a calf and they will bear them company”.At the beginning, the calf showed gentle, when left alone with the pig and this went to the shooting, gave him a kick in the stomach and made him to bring the soul to St. Anthony.It happened with the old the same story of past. The calf came to him in tears of the lady. After walking a long way, the old man brought the calf in the house of an acquaintance. He gave her some money to buy the straw and hay, then he left. During the night, the daughter of the mistress were strange pain.
Her mother sent for the doctor and he said that she had to eat a very warm calf’s heart. If she had not eaten it, she would have died. The woman became crazy to think where to find it. In the end, the daughter, wringing on the bed as if at any moment she kicked the bucket, said in a weak voice: “Mom, there is down below the calf that gave you the old man”. “It’s true! What a stupid I am! You’re right. I’m going to kill him”. And she really killed him. We didn’t to add that she had just eaten the heart of the calf, the daughter recovered. But no one thought that the old man would come.
When he arrived, mother and daughter didn’t know which way to turn in order to find a convincing excuse. The old would not care about the pains of the young lady. So there was a very big row and screams came up to heaven. “ Listen” cried at last the old ”I will take your daughter instead of the calf”. “ What?” said the furious woman. “ You don’t touch my daughter, and if you touch her poor you!”. And so saying, she seized a stick and began to beat him everywhere. The old man tried to escape, ran here and there and the neighbourhood cried because she stopped to beat him. At the end she was exhausted and stopped to stick. And then she gave the old man her daughter. The old put her into a bag and loaded it on his back. Then he went away. After walking a long way, suddenly he realized that he didn’t do more. He knocked at the first house he saw and asked for a place to rest. He was satisfied. The old man went into a room to sleep, leaving the bag in a small room near the kitchen, and he recommended they did not touch it. The old could not know that the family of the girl lived in the house. He just felt asleep, the women of the house, always curious, wanted to see what was inside the bag, and they remained in amazement when, instead of crusts of bread they imagined they saw their granddaughter, who, recognizing their relatives, she all told. “Now we need to think about how to save her” said the lady of the house. As you do, as there is, in the end another woman said: “We put inside the bag a cat and a stick with long branches, which seems that opens its arms like a man. In this way the old will remain deceived”. Then she turned to the girl:” In the meantime you run by your mother, who’s crying by despair. Goodness knows how she’ll give you a hearty welcome!”. While the girl ran from her mother the old awoke. He went to take his bag, he put it on his shoulder and went away all happy. Arrived near a fountain, he began to sing:
From chickpea has become cock,
from cock has become pig
from pig has become calf,
from calf has become a girl,
here, I open again slowly,
exit out and give me a kiss.
He opened the bag again and fell to the ground furious and frightened. The cat went out very angry and scratched him in all his body.
So the old man, twisting about in pain and blushing , went home and was left empty-handed.
This happens to whom wants too much.

Inter-cool-tural stories- Bulgaria

The Old Bulgarian Tradition

The legends are as birds for the Bulgarians, preserved in the long 1300-year history - they will fly to you when you feel merry or sad, will perch near you when your sorrow has come to feed your faith. The folk customs are like the birds – they fly always wit the Bulgarians, because they are the spirit of our ancestors.

Where does the Martenitsa come from?

If you are fortunate enough to visit Bulgaria in the beginning of March you are certain to notice almost every person decorated with small tokens made from red and white woollen threads. Then from late March to mid-April, you will notice many fruit trees and shrubs decorated with these same tokens. March 1 is the Baba Marta (Grandma Marta) day in Bulgaria - on the first of March, and the days following, all people give each other red-and-white strips or small woollen dolls called Pizho (the male character) and Penda (the female one), also known as Martenitsi. They are named thus because they bring the name of March, or in Bulgarian - Mart. According to the tradition, Marta (the female variation of the word Mart) is an angry old lady who rapidly changes her mood from bad to good and back again. She is popular all around as Grandmother Marta (in Bulgarian Baba Marta). The colours of the martenitsa, whose symbolism comes from an old Bulgarian tale, represent blood and snow. Bulgarians are supposed to attach the martenitsa to their persons or clothing. Traditionally, the martenitsa were not removed until the first stork returned from migration to ensure prosperity and good health.

It is a symbol of the peace, love, good health and happiness. The white colour stands for cleanness and sincerity, the red is love, friendship and affection.
Old Bulgarians used to believe that children and little animals are threatened by evil forces. That’s why they make martenitsi and the children have them pinned on their lapels until they see a stork, a swallow or a bloomed tree. Then they put them under a rock. They lift the rock on the other day. If there is a worm or an insect near the martenitsa, it means that the child will be fit and healthy during the whole year.
“With beauty against the evil” the Bulgarian nation says!

The story of the Martenitsa

There are many beliefs and stories regarding the meaning of the red-and-white symbols of the Martenitsas – the most popular being the following one:
More than a dozen centuries ago, the proto-Bulgarian ruler Khan Asparukh left his home in the distant Asia in search of fertile land for his people to live on. He passed through many rivers and mountains until he finally reached the lands of the Slavs, who greeted him and his people as dear guests. Slav women, wearing white outfits brought drinks, while the tables were full of foods – everything that grows on that blessed land. But the Khan was sad and homesick and he missed his mother and his dear sister Kalina, also called Huba (Kalina means beautiful). He sat by the huge river and tears ran down hid sunburnt face, while he prayed to gods and the sun for a miracle to happen. And it did happen! A swallow landed on his shoulder and the Khan shared all his sorrow to her. Then the swallow flew away, back to the lands the proto-Bulgarians came from, and with a human voice it told Kalina, the Khan’s sister, that her brother found a new land for his kingdom but he is misses her so much and sends his best feelings.
Kalina was so happy to hear that – and she decided to send her brother a token that she had got the news. She made a small bunch from some green bush, she bound it with a white woollen thread, and made knots at the end of the thread as a greeting sign – and she sent the swallow to take that bunch back to her brother. The swallow flew fast as lightning and very soon it landed on the Khan’s shoulder again. But due to the long flight his wing was hurt and some blood drops dyed the white woollen thread. The Khan was so happy to see the green bunch, he got his sister’s greeting by the knots she had made, and so he pinned the bunch on his chest. The Khan ordered his men each to put a small bunch of twisted red-and-white thread on that day each year – for health and heavenly blessing. That happened on the first of March and remained as a tradition ever since. As the Bulgarian tradition goes, each morning on the first of March the mistress of the house decorates the young kids and the newborn animals with Martenitsas she prepared herself from woollen or cotton threads.

Grandma Marta and her brothers Big Sechko and Little Sechko
Grandma Marta had two brothers - Big Sechko and Little Sechko. They grew a vineyard together and made three oak barrels of wine. Big Sechko (the folklore name of January) wandered all the day, made snow and cold. So did Little Sechko (February). In the evenings they drank wine to warm up. Day after day their wine finished. They didn’t have even a drop. What should they do? It was still too freezing! They were ashamed but felt like drinking so much. One day they looked at Grandma Marta’s barrel. It was completely full. She hadn’t even opened it. So, the two brothers drank their sister’s wine and left the barrel totally dry.
On the other day soon after Marta had finished her housework, she went to the cellar and saw the empty barrel. Oh, how furious she was! She was green with anger. She made the wind blow and the rain and snow fall on the ground. But then she calmed down, since it was her own brothers who drank the wine. She smiled and looked at them with affection and love. Then, when she remembered their lie she got angry again. Thus March, her month, is both smiling sunnily and coldly furious – the same as Grandma Marta.

Inter-cool-tural stories- Italy

CRYSTAL COCK

Once upon a time there was a cock that went around the world.
He found a letter on the road, he picked it up with his beak and read it. It said:
“Crystal cock, crystalline hen, countess goose, abbess duck, little goldfinch bird, let’s go to Pollicino’s wedding!”
The cock decided to go and along the way he met the hen and she asked him: “Where are you going, Mr. Cock?”
“I’m going to Pollicino’s wedding”, he answered.
“Can I come with you?”, she asked.
“Yes, if you are mentioned in the letter”, he said.
He checked : “Crystal Cock, crystalline hen, …. So he exclaimed: “You are here! Then, let’s go!”

So they set off again. After a short time they met the Goose.
“Where are you going, Miss Hen and Mr. Cock?”, she asked.
“We’re going to Pollicino’s wedding!”, they answered.
“Can I come with you?”, she asked.
“Yes, if you are mentioned in the letter”, he said.
He opened the letter again and read: “Crystal Cock, crystalline Hen, countess Goose …. So he exclaimed: “You are here! Then, let’s go!”
They walked and walked and after they met the Duck.
“Where are you going, Miss Goose, Miss Hen and Mr. Cock?”, she asked.
“We’re going to Pollicino’s wedding”, they answered.
“Can I come with you?” she asked.
“Yes, if you are mentioned in the letter!”, he said.
He read the letter: “Crystal Cock, crystalline Hen, countess Goose, abbess Duck, …. So he exclaimed: “You are here! So you can come too!”
After some time they met the little goldfinch bird.
“Where are you going, Miss Duck, Miss Goose, Miss Hen and Mr. Cock?”, he asked.
“We’re going to Pollicino’s wedding”, they answered.
“Can I come with you?” she asked.
“Yes, if you are mentioned in the letter!”, he said.
He read the letter: “Crystal Cock, crystalline Hen, countess Goose, abbess Duck, little goldfinch Bird, …!
“You are here too!”, and all five set off again.
At a certain point they met a wolf that asked them as well where they were going.
“We’re going to Pollicino’s wedding”, the Cock answered.
“Can I come with you?” the wolf asked.
“Yes, if you are mentioned in the letter!”, and the Cock read the letter again, but the wolf wasn’t there.
“But I want to come too!” exclaimed the wolf.
And because they were afraid they agreed: “Let’s go!”
After a while, suddenly the wolf said,
“I’m hungry!”
“I haven’t got anything for you to eat!”, the Cock answered.
“So, I’lll eat you!” and the wolf opened his mouth wide and swallowed him whole.
Further along the way the wolf said again:
“I’m hungry!”
the Hen answered him like the cock and the wolf swallowed her too.
He did the same with the Goose.
He did the same with the Duck.
Only the wolf and the little bird were left. The wolf said, “Little bird, I’m hungry!”
“I don’t know what to give you to eat!, the little bird said.
“So, I’ll eat you!!!”, and the wolf opened his mouth wide” … and the little bird flew onto the wolf’s head. The wolf tried to catch him, but the little bird flew about here and there, he jumped from branch to branch, then he came back onto the wolf’s head then onto his tail and he drew him mad.
When the wolf was tired out, the little bird saw a woman coming from a long way off with a basket on her head. She was taking the reapers something to eat. The little bird called the Wolf and said,
“If you spare me, I’ll get you to eat the pasta and meat the woman is taking the reapers. Because when she sees me, she’ll want to catch me, but I’ll fly away and jump about from branch to branch, So she’ll put the basket on the ground and you can eat everything.
And it happened in this way!
“Help! Help!”, shouted the woman.
The reapers arrived: Some, with their scythes, and some, with sticks, jumped onto the olf and killed him.
Crystal Cock, crystalline Hen, countess Goose, abbess Duck jumped out of the wolf’s tummy safe and sound and they went to Pollicino’s wedding with the little goldfinch bird.

2ND PROJECT MEETING VRATSA BULGARIA

9 March 2009
9.00 – Arrival of the guests from Italy, Spain and Turkey at Vratsa bus station;
check-in at Chaika hotel. The Portuguese guests arrive on March 7 and stay at Hemus
hotel. The Slovenian guests stay at Chaika hotel and arrive by private bus directly
there.
10.30 – Arrival at the school – the tradition of meeting and greeting newcomers
includes gifting of a bunch of geranium, tied with a red thread for health. The
Bulgarian for the plant is “Zdravets” and comes from the word “zdrave” –
“health”. Everyone takes a chunk of bread, dips it into honey and eats it. The
meaning is “We welcome you! Make yourselves at home!”. Visit to the four classes
working on the project. They are 2b (class teacher Vesela Valcheva), 3v (CT –
Diana Alexandrova), 4g (CT – Liliya Gesheva), 4d (CT – Yordanka Todorova). The
other colleages from the project team are Emiliya Varbanova (the art teacher),
Kalina Nikolova (the English teacher and project coordinator) and Violeta Zlidolska
(peragogical advisor). Our headmaster is Mrs. Antoaneta Sirakova and deputy
headmaster – Mrs. Miglena Vasileva.
During the class visits you will hear about our holidays – March 1(Martenitsi),
March 3 (the national holiday of Bulgaria), March 8 (Women’s day), March 11 (St.
Sofronii Vrachanski).
11.30 – work meeting in the staff room on the 2nd floor
11.30 – art activities of Mrs. Emilia Varbanova with the Slovenian pupils and
their Bulgarian hosts
12.15 – seeing off of the classes participating in the bike march on an ecological
project of our school
12.30 – lunch of the whole group
14.00 – visit to class 3v
15.00 – walk to the Tourist Hut above the town – about a 15-minute walk along an
asphalted sloppy road or steps – you choose. It can be done on high-heeled shoes.
The whole town can be viewed from that place.
17.00 – free time
19.00 – dinner of the work team with the foreign guests in a tavern
19.00 – 22.00 – the Slovenian children have dinner at their Bulgarian hosts’
famiies

10 март 2009
8.30 – the Slovenian teachers and children arrive at the school
8.30 – 10.30 - the Slovenian children have classes with 4g and 4d class
9.00 – visit to the history museum where two Thracian treasures found near Vratsa
are stored
10.00 – meeting of the mayor of Vratsa Municipality Mr. Mladenov with the project
guests
10.30/11.00 – visit to the Ethnographical museum, visit of Emilia Varbanova’s
workshop where she deals with knitting and wok on a vertical loom. The Slovenian
children and their hosts are presents too.
13.00 – lunch of the whole group (including the children) at Hemus hotel restaurant
14.00 – free time
16.30 – ray march – groups of children from the school leave from different
parts of the town centre and direct to the concert hall
18.00 – official 100-th school anniversary concert “A planet of dreams”;
participation of the Slovenian children in the concert; cocktail

11 март 2009
8.30 – church ceremony in front of the school dedicated to the 270-th anniversary
of our school parton St. Sofronii Vrachanski – a prominent figure of the Bulgarian
national revival
9.30 – march to the monument of St. Sofronii Vrachanski
10.00 – holiday dedicated to the 270-th anniversary of St. Sofronii Vrachanski
organized by the Vratsa bishop (by the way he has a birthday too)
11.00 – concert in the town concert hall
13.00 – lunch
14.30 – visit of the Ledenika cave (some 20 km in the mountains above Vratsa; you
need hiking shoes and warm clothes; the name of the cave comes from the word
“led” which means “ice”, so it is cold inside – about 1-5 degrees)
19.30 – changing of the clothes and official dinner with the teachers from the
school dedicated to the school birthday; The bill is on the Bulgarian hosts.
19.00 – 22.00 – the Slovenian children have dinner at their Bulgarian hosts’
famiLies

12 март 2009
Final meeting, shopping and leaving of the guests.