God Jul och Gott Nytt År!

We in Cronhjelmskolan, Larsmo, wish our American and Canadian friends in Greenville, Oregon City, West Dundee, Bowie and Quebec City a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2017!  

Here are some pictures from our last school day in 2016, December the 21st.

Sankta Lucia in Cronhjelmskolan, December the 13th

We have in school today, December the 13th, celebrated an old Christian feast day called Sankta Lucia (Saint Lucy's Day). This is a Scandinavian Lutheran tradition and the celebration comes from stories that were told by monks who brought Christianity to Scandinavia a long time ago. Lucia was a young Christian girl who was martyred and killed for her faith on the 13th of December 304 AD. She brought light in the midst of darkness.

We had a very solemn and beautiful candlelit Lucia procession this year at Cronhjelmskolan. There was a very special atmosphere in our gymnasium this morning when the lights were dimmed and Lucia, her handmaidens and star boys, all dressed in white, entered the gymnasium, singing the Lucia song and also other songs together.

Tradition has it that Lucia wears light in her hair. Our Lucia had a crown of candles in a wreath on her head. Each of her handmaidens carried a candle, too. The star boys carried stars on sticks and they had tall paper cones on their heads.

At school we also got gingerbread cookies and saffron-flavoured buns which we call Lussekatter. The buns are shaped like curled-up cats and they are decorated with raisin eyes.

Oregon City celebrating Finland's Independence Day.  We really went all out!

Oregon City was getting ready to celebrate Finland's Independence Day on December 6th when we decided that we needed to challenge our friends to a Mannequin Challenge. We did our challenge in one take.  We have a blast. We are excited to do more mannequin challenges with our other Bridging Culture Groups.  Just you wait!

Mannequin Challenge from Cronhjelmskolan in Finland

LOTS OF GREETINGS TO OUR AMERICAN FRIENDS!

A newspaper article in Swedish about our global collaboration

This article about our SMART collaboration project was recently in one of the local papers here in Larsmo! It's written in Swedish, because in Larsmo most people speak Swedish as their mother tongue.

A winter picture of Cronhjelmskolan

We have wintry weather also in Larsmo, Finland! The temperature is a few degrees below zero (Celsius) and smaller roads are quite slippery, so everybody riding a bike or a moped to school needs to be careful.

Mannequin Challenges from Pennsylvania

Pictures Outside Our Windows

Here are pictures outside our classroom window!

Winter has finally arrived in Pennsylvania USA 12/9/2016

Finland celebrates its 99th birthday

Today has been a very special day in Cronhjelmskolan in Larsmo. We have celebrated our country's independence day which was December 6th. There was a big celebration for students and staff in our school's gymnasium. Since the Finnish flag is white with a blue cross on, the decorations were in blue and white.

Finland has now been independent for 99 years! Today's celebration contained glimpses from past and present and we sang of course our national anthem!

The program consisted of music, poems, a short theater performance, a short movie about Finland's history and then in the end we enjoyed traditional Finnish Christmas food!

West Dundee, Illinois

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