Spring Day!

Spring Day is a tradition at my school and today I had the chance to see what it is all about. Spring Day is actually a celebration of Victory Day(9 May), which was the day that World War II ended in Europe through the surrendering of Germany to the Soviets. The high school in which I work celebrates Spring Day by presentations of different cultural aspects of nations in the European Union. A week ago each class willing to participate drew the name of a European Union country out of a hat. In the past weak these classes have worked hard researching and preparing to present their country the best.

The countries presented today were:

France
Austria
Portugal
Holland
Finland
Slovakia
Poland
Bulgaria
Cyprus
Italy
Ireland
Spain
Hungry

My job in this process was simple. I joined the judges in visiting each room and I enjoyed all aspects of the show. There was a lot of information for each class to cover. They had to speak about their country's geography, leadership, religion, customs(music, song, dance, holidays), flag, costumes, and food. I saw students reading, memorizing lines, acting, singing, dancing, even painting. Each class assumed a little bit of patriotism for the foreign country that they had chosen from a hat only a week before.

The #1 presentation was Finland. The Finland presentation was a large skit which started like a boxing match with one of the students walking through the ring holding up a sign "Round 1" with the first category on it. The students worked hard on memorizing their lines, dressing up in costumes, and decorating the room to portray the cultural aspects of Finland, including Santa Claus. What made their presentation the winning presentation was that every student in the class was somehow involved.













The best part of my job today was the food tasting at the end of every presentation. The food that I liked the most was in the Irish room, the potato based dishes. The best desert was a fruit and whip cream cake in the Bulgaria room. The best costumes of the day were in the French room where I saw a painter, a mime, and Quasimodo!