Saturday, 30 January 2010

Celebrating San Mauro in Wales





































We celebrated San Mauro in Wales. The whole school took part in lots of activities such as singing Italian songs, creating poems, learning about Italy, Sicily and San Mauro, eating Italian food and having a parade. The infant department had a San Mauro parade with the Saint walking through the streets with the crowds calling 'Viva San Mauro' followed by a Balloon Launch. The junior department has a parade followed by a 'Run for the Cannoli' and Balloon Launch.
We had a fabulous day!!

Friday, 29 January 2010

SNOW,SNOW,SNOW


Some snowy pictures from Västerås, Sweden....

Wednesday, 13 January 2010

Religion in Wales

Christianity is the largest religion in Wales. Until 1920 the established church was Anglican, although Wales has a strong tradition of nonconformism and Methodism.

Most adherents to organised religion in Wales follow the Church in Wales or other Christian denominations such as the Presbyterian Church of Wales, Catholicism, Baptist and Congregational churches, and Eastern Orthodoxy. Other religions Welsh people may be affiliated with include Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Sikhism, with most non-Christian Welsh people found in Cardiff.

Christian denominations in the UK
Christianity arrived in Wales during the Roman occupation, but was initially suppressed. The first Christian martyrs in Wales, Julius and Aaron, were killed at Isca Augusta (Caerleon) in south Wales in about 304 AD. The earliest Christian object found in Wales is a vessel with a Chi-Rho symbol found at the nearby town of Venta Silurum (Caerwent). By the end of the 4th century Christianity became the sole official religion of the Roman Empire. [1]
Roman withdrawal
As the Roman legions garrisoned in Wales withdrew in the early 5th century, invading tribes including the Angles and Saxons, who later became the Anglo-Saxon English, were unable to make inroads except possibly along the Severn Valley as far as Llanidloes. However they gradually conquered eastern and southern Britain (which then became England), thus leaving Wales cut off from her Celtic relations in Scotland, Cornwall and Cumbria. The writer Gildas drew sharp contrasts between the Christian Welsh at this time and the pagan Anglo-Saxon invaders.
Age of the Saints
The "age of the saints" (approximately 500-700 AD) was marked by the establishment of monastic settlements throughout the country, by religious leaders such as Saint David, Illtud and Teilo. This was the period when the Welsh developed a shared national identity, arising from their language and religious beliefs. [2] [1]
Roman Catholicism
The Welsh refused to co-operate with Augustine of Canterbury's mission to the Anglo-Saxons. However, a combination of Celtic Christianity's reconciliation with Rome and English conquest of Wales meant that from the Middle Ages until 1920, the Welsh dioceses were part of the Province of Canterbury -- in communion with the See of Rome until the Reformation.
Anglicanism
This participation in the Province of Canterbury continued afterwards as part of the Church of England. From the time of Henry VIII, Wales had been absorbed into England as a legal entity and the Established Church in Wales was the Church of England.
Although some of the scriptures and a number of apocryphal books had been translated in the Middle Ages, the first translation of the modern Bible into Welsh was the New Testament translation of William Salesbury in 1567, closely followed by William Morgan's translation of the whole Bible in 1588. The translation of the Bible into Welsh was important to the survival of the Welsh language, the native tongue of the vast majority of the Welsh, which had effectively been banned from official use by the Acts of Union (1536-43). It had the effect, along with the Welsh translation of the Book of Common Prayer, of conferring status on Welsh as a liturgical language and vehicle for worship. This had a significant role in its continued use as a means of everyday communication and as a literary language down to the present day despite the pressure of English.
Methodism and Nonconformism
The Welsh Methodist revival of the 18th century was one of the most significant religious and social movements in the history of Wales. The revival began within the Church of England in Wales and at the beginning remained as a group within it, but the Welsh revival differed from the Methodist revival in England in that its theology was Calvinist rather than Arminian. Welsh Methodists gradually built up their own networks, structures, and even meeting houses (or chapels), which led eventually to the secession of 1811 and the formal establishment of the Calvinistic Methodist Presbyterian church of Wales in 1823.
The Welsh Methodist revival also had an influence on the older nonconformist churches, or dissenters — the Baptists and the Congregationalists — who in turn also experienced growth and renewal. As a result, by the middle of the nineteenth century, Wales was a predominantly a nonconformist country.
Welsh Revival
The 1904-1905 Welsh Revival was the largest full scale Christian Revival of Wales of the 20th century. It is believed that at least 100,000 people became Christians during the 1904-1905 revival, but despite this it did not put a stop to the gradual decline of Christianity in Wales, only holding it back slightly.
Disestablishment
The Welsh Church Act 1914 provided for the separation of the four dioceses of the Church of England located in Wales (known collectively as the Church in Wales) from the rest of the Church, and for the simultaneous disestablishment of the Church. The Act came into operation in 1920. Since then there has been no established church in Wales. In 2008, the Anglican Church in Wales narrowly rejected a proposal to allow women to become bishops. [3]
Sabbatarianism
The Sabbatarian temperance movement was historically strong among the Welsh, the sale of alcohol being prohibited on Sundays in Wales by the Sunday Closing Act of 1881 - the first legislation specifically issued for Wales since the Middle Ages. From the early 1960s, local council areas were permitted to hold referendums every seven years to determine whether they should be "wet" or "dry" on Sundays: most of the industrialised areas in the east and south went "wet" immediately, and by the 1980s the last district, Dwyfor in the northwest, went wet, since then there have been no more Sunday-closing referendums.
Saints
A monastic community was founded by Saint David at what is now St David's. The present building of St David's Cathedral was started in 1181.
Saint David is the patron saint of Wales.
Wales is particularly noted for naming places after either local or well-known saints - all places beginning in Llan e.g. Llanbedr - St Peter (Pedr); Llanfair - St Mary (Mair); Llanfihangel - St Michael (Mihangel); Llanarmon - St. Garmon. Because of the relatively small number of saints' names used, places names are often suffixed by their locality e.g. Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr, Llanfihangel y Creuddyn, Llanfihangel-y-Pennant.
Islam
The largest non-Christian faith in Wales is Islam, with about 22,000 members in 2001 served by about 40 mosques.
The first Muslim community which permanently settled in Wales consisted of Yemeni sailors who arrived in ports such as Swansea shortly after 1900. The first mosque in Britain is recorded as having been at 2 Glyn Rhondda Street, Cardiff, in 1860 [4] .
In Wales most Muslims live in Cardiff (11,261, 3.7% of the population), but there are also significant numbers in Newport (3,492) and Swansea (2,167).
Judaism
Main article: History of the Jews in Wales
Judaism has quite a long history in Wales, with a Jewish community recorded in Swansea from around 1730. In August 1911, during a period of public order and industrial disputes, Jewish shops across the South Wales coalfield were damaged by mobs. Since that time the Jewish population of that area, which reached a peak of 4,000 - 5,000 in 1913, has declined with only Cardiff retaining a sizeable Jewish population, of about 2,000 in the 2001 census.
Other faiths
See also: Hinduism in Wales
Hinduism and Buddhism each have about 5,000 adherents in Wales, with the rural county of Ceredigion being the centre of Welsh Buddhism. Govinda's temple & restaurant, run by the Hare Krishnas in Swansea, is a focal point for many Welsh Hindus. There are about 2000 Sikhs in Wales, with the first purpose-built gurdwara opened in the Riverside area of Cardiff in 1989. In 2001 some 7,000 people classified themselves as following "other religions" including a reconstructed form of Druidism, which was the pre-Christian religion of Wales (not to be confused with the Druids of the Gorsedd at the National Eisteddfod of Wales).
5. Irreligion
Approximately one-sixth of the population, some 500,000 people, profess no religious faith.
Statistics
The Roman Catholic Church (Eglwys Gatholig Rufeinig) and the Church in Wales (Eglwys yng Nghymru) are the two largest churches in Wales, both of which have less than 5 % of the population as members. The next largest religious society is the Presbyterian Church of Wales (Eglwys Bresbyteraidd Cymru) with 34,819 (2004) members (slightly more than 1 % of the population), followed by the the Union of Welsh Independents (Undeb yr Annibynwyr Cymraeg) and the Baptist Union of Wales (Undeb Bedyddwyr Cymru) which each have about 1 % of the population as members.
The 2001 census showed that slightly less than 10% of the Welsh population are regular church- or chapel-goers (a slightly smaller proportion than in England or Scotland), although about 70% of the population see themselves as Christian in some way.
Religions in Wales, 2001
Religion Number %
Christianity
2,087,242 71.9
No religion
537,935 18.5
Islam
21,739 0.7
Hinduism
5,439 0.2
Sikhism
2,015 0.1
Judaism
2,256 0.1
Buddhism
5,407 0.2
Any other religion
6,909 0.2
Religion not stated
234,143 8.1

Tuesday, 12 January 2010

Song, Poem, Legend from Wales

SONG
Heno, Heno


Heno, heno, hen blant bach,
Heno, heno, hen blant bach,
Dime, dime, dime, hen blant bach,
Dime, dime, dime, hen blant bach.

Gwely, gwely, hen blant bach,
Gwely, gwely, hen blant bach,
Dime, dime, dime, hen blant bach,
Dime, dime, dime, hen blant bach.

Fory, fory, hen blant bach,
Fory, fory, hen blant bach,
Dime, dime, dime, hen blant bach,
Dime, dime, dime, hen blant bach.

Translation - Lullaby


Tonight, tonight, dear little children,
Tonight, tonight, dear little children
Halfpenny, halfpenny, halfpenny, dear little children,
Halfpenny, halfpenny, halfpenny, dear little children.

Bed, bed, dear little children.
Bed, bed, dear little children.
Halfpenny, halfpenny, halfpenny, dear little children,
Halfpenny, halfpenny, halfpenny, dear little children.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, dear little children.
Tomorrow, tomorrow, dear little children.
Halfpenny, halfpenny, halfpenny, dear little children,
Halfpenny, halfpenny, halfpenny, dear little children.

POEM

My beautiful Wales

I think I would cry
If they made me say GOODBYE
To the beautiful land of Wales.

With the mountains so high,
Crystal streams running by,
All this in beautiful Wales.

Welsh rugby's a treat,
It's a great place to meet,
At the Millennium Stadium in Wales.

Castle and leek,
The language we speak,
You can tell that we come from Wales.
This country is great!

Don't leave it too late,
To visit my beautiful Wales!

LEGEND

Rhidian and the Light

Thirteen centuries ago there lived a priest called Rhidian, who looked after a small church in the Gower peninsula (in South Wales). He went on a special journey - a pilgrimage to St. Davids.
His journey was long and difficult. Since the Romans had left Britain the roads had become overgrown and so he had to travel on the rough tracks. However, he was determined to visit the place where Saint David had built his monastery and where David was now buried. Like many other Christians he believed that if he went to this holy site, he would feel closer to God and receive a special blessing.

When Rhidian arrived in St. Davids he prayed to God and made an offering (a gift) to the monastery. Like all pilgrims, he wanted to take something back with him from St. Davids - something which would remind him of his pilgrimage and which would bring him closer to God. So before leaving, he took the small lamp he had brought with him and lit it with the flame which burnt at the altar of David’s shrine. Carefully he guarded the flame on his way home, protecting it from the winds which whistled through the trees.

Weary and tired from his travels, Rhidian stopped to spend the night at the house of a friend called Gwynor. Gwynor welcomed Rhidian to his home. During the cold night they sat down to eat a simple meal together and talked about Rhidian’s wonderful visit to St. Davids.
As they talked, Gwynor noticed that Rhidian often glanced at his lamp. He wondered why Rhidian was wasting the precious oil; the house was already lit, so why was Rhidian keeping his lamp alight?

Gwynor was curious and asked his friend about this. Rhidian replied that he was keeping the light burning because the flame was sacred; it had come from the shrine of St. David and he wanted to take it back to his own church, where it’s light could be seen by all.
Gwynor thought this was such a wonderful idea that he asked Rhidian if he could share the flame as well, so that he too could light his church with the sacred flame from David’s monastery.


Rhidian hesitated for a moment. Should he give away some of the light? He had walked many miles through valleys and across rivers to travel to St. Davids and back. The flame was precious to him. However, he was a Christian. He knew that the flame would be cherished by Gwynor and the people in his church, so he kindly agreed to share the sacred flame with his friend. The feeling of warmth he had from sharing the light made him feel good inside. The two priests finished the evening by praying to God before going to sleep.

The next morning Rhidian set off on the last lap of his journey home. He did not have far to travel, but the weather was changing for the worse. Suddenly he found himself enveloped in a cloak of white as a blizzard of snow and wind swept in from the sea. As his lamp swung in the sudden gust of wind, it blew out the flickering flame. Rhidian felt despair; his precious light from David’s shrine had gone.

As Rhidian stood in despair, with the wind whistling and the snow swirling around him, he remembered that he had shared his light with his friend Gwynor. A look of joy spread across his face - all was not lost. Quickly he turned back towards Gwynor’s house. As he walked through the thickening blanket of snow he remembered how he had almost kept the light to himself. He was so pleased that he had shared the flame. When he reached Gwynor’s house his friend was only too willing to let him share the flame from his lamp. Because Rhidian had shared the light, Gwynor was now able to repay his kindness by sharing the light with him. Rhidian said to himself, "I would never have had this light unless I had given it away."

Saturday, 9 January 2010

LEGENG,POEM AND SONG FROM SPAIN

The legend of the Rincon Malillo or the Evil Corner. The legend comes from the 16th century when a wealthy gentleman, who was a drunken, gambling swordsman, named Alvaro de Mendoza y Virues had a strange brush with the devil. Don Alvaro, who lived in the noble neighborhood of Saint Matthew in Jerez de la Frontera, had just killed a man in a swordfight when he, filled with his own self, challenged the devil to a duel. The legend says that in that instant he felt a sharp pain in his arm and began to bleed. Frightened he ran from that place to his home the Plaza del Mercado, the Market Square, and shut himself up in his house. Posessing buildings all over the city, he ordered that iron crucifixes be erected in the niches in each one of the homes, including the corner where the devil stabbed him in the arm. The legend continues that Don Alvaro never left his home again and spent long hours in his study and so the neighbors began to call him “the caged one.” When he finally died, many years later, they found his body with the cut on his arm still unhealed. Many of the crucifixes that he had erected are still visible throught the old city.


POEM:

EL LAGARTO ESTÁ LLORANDO

EL LAGARTO ESTÁ LLORANDO.
LA LAGARTA ESTÁ LLORANDO.
EL LAGARTO Y LA LAGARTA
CON DELANTILLOS BLANCOS.

HAN PERDIDO SIN QUERER
SU ANILLO DE DESPOSADOS.
¡AY! SU ANILLITO DE PLOMO,
¡AY! SU ANILLITO PLOMADO.

UN CIELO GRANDE Y SIN GENTE
MONTA EN SU GLOBO A LOS PÁJAROS.
EL SOL, CAPITÁN REDONDO,
LLEVA UN CHALECO DE RASO.

¡MIRADLOS QUÉ VIEJOS SON!
¡QUÉ VIEJOS SON LOS LAGARTOS!
¡AY, CÓMO LLORAN Y LLORAN!
¡AY, AY, CÓMO ESTÁN LLORANDO!

FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA

SONG:

LOS PATITOS

LOS PATITOS
EN EL AGUA
MENEABAN SU COLITA
SE DECÍAN UNO A OTRO:
¡HAY QUE AGUA
TAN FRESQUITA!

TODOS LOS PATITOS
SE FUERON A BAÑAR,
EL MÁS CHIQUITITO
SE QUEDÓ DETRÁS,
SU MADRE ENFADA
LE QUISO REGAÑAR,
Y EL POBRE PATITO
SE ECHÓ A LLORAR.
¡MUA, MUA, MUA!

Friday, 8 January 2010

Greetings

We wish you all a HAPPY NEW START OF 2010

Greetings from Therese and Monica

Thursday, 7 January 2010

Happy New Year! Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

Happy New Year from everyone in Wales!



Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!


We have lots of snow in South Wales at the moment!


Here some photos of my garden, we have no school today because we are not able to travel on the roads.