Düzce
Italy
The Italian team participated in the feast with a short play acted by the students. This is a performance dealing with something humanly in-explicable; during the 18th century Austrian-Spanish war in south of Italy the Spanish General Montemar accused the Apulian town Bitonto of sheltering the Austrian soldiers fleeing and wanted to burn it to the ground but he changed his mind because a brave woman presented herself to beg him not to harm the citizens. In the collective imagination of the “Bitontini” (inhabitants of Bitonto) that woman was not a simple commoner but the Holy Virgin Mary herself.
In order to celebrate this historic event, occurred on the 25th of May 1734, since 1985 a parade representing something between History and legend has been taking place every year in the same period of the “unhappened” battle.
Spain
Spain: Fiesta de Mozos
The Spanish students performed their traditional feastival called Fiesta de Mozos.It has its origin in an epidemic of bubonic plague that devastated the town, causing the death of the majority of the young people of the Jiennense locality.
Tradition has it that in order to combat the epidemic, the neighbours brought out the Blessed Sacrament in procession and that, as a consequence of this action, the sick were healed.
To commemorate that prodigy, every year in September the Blessed Sacrament is processed as if it were the day of Corpus and, at the same time, a carnival of masks and authentic popular festival is celebrated, in which, spontaneously, the Young people go out to the street to show their ingenuity, their teasing and their criticisms.
Turkey
Turkish wedding custom: Henna night.
Kina Gecesi, Henna Night is one of the traditional Turkish wedding customs in Turkey. It’s a women’s party before the wedding. The brides friends and family members gather to eat, dance and sing before the bride leaves her mother’s home crying. It is called “henna night” because they put henna on their hands.
Traditionally kina gecesi starts at girl’s house one or two days before the wedding. Usually friends and relatives are invited. A flag is hanged and this shows that the wedding has started. The guests are offered dried fruit and juices and they sing and dance altogether. The bride dressed in a nice evening gown wears a bindallı (a long velvet gown) and her head is covered with a red cloth before they henna her hands. The henna is mixed on a tray with candles. A young lady with the henna tray, the bride and the girls holding candels walk around the chair in the middle of the room by singing and dancing. Then the bride sits on the chair and other women sing sad songs to make the bride cry because she is leaving home. They put henna into bride’s palm and then the henna is offered to the guests. After the henna they keep singing and dancing.
Lithuania
Lithuania: Midsummer festival
Midsummer festival was presented in Lithuanian team’s presentation. The history, traditions and interesting facts about this celebration were mentioned in that presentation. After the presentation, students presented the traditional activity that is performed during this festival. It was decorating stones with people’s dreams and throwing them into the river.
Summary of the video 'Once upon a time’
In this video there were three lederly people filmed who told about Lithuanian wedding , Easter and Christmas traditions in the past. Theses people shared memories about the traditions, ways of celebrating of these three events in the past.
Portugal
Portugal: the Legend of Saint Martin
Portugal is a small country but very rich in ancestral traditions. In the mobility of Turkey, the Legend of Saint Martin was presented as one of the most expressive popular traditions of our day. In addition, the day of this commemoration (November 11) took place during the mobility we met in Duzce. On this day, all Portuguese eat roasted chestnuts to remember the miracle that Roman soldier Martinho practiced. Finding a shivering beggar, he tore his cloak in half and shared it with him. At that moment, the clouds disappeared and the sun opened. And even today it happens: at this time of year, in the middle of autumn, there are always sunny days that people enjoy to dry their corn. We call this the summer of St. Martin. Our students took a comic strip made by them for the presentation at the meeting and performed in theater the episode of Saint Martin and the beggar. At the end of the presentation, they tasted the famous roasted and boiled nuts with fennel or cinnamon.
Romania
Romania: The Romanian wedding
The Romanian students performed the traditional wedding ceremony.The Romanian wedding is the event where the ancient rituals and traditions are respected even nowadays very strictly. Among the most anticipated moments of this day are two old Romanian symbolic traditions before the wedding: the groom's shaving and the bride's preparation.
