EVS IN KOCANI Looking back... To out projects Monthly Magazine
February 2015
St. Valentine or St. Trifun Each year on February 14th, many people,exchange cards, candy gifts or flowers with their special “valentine.” Theday of romance we call Valentine’s Day is named.for a Christian martyr and dates back to the 4th century. On the same date in the Balkans is the celebration of the Day of St Trifun. St. Trifun is the protector of grapevine and wine. On this day grape growers are pruning the first vine and taking a piece of the blessed .grapevine for good luck and good yields Which St. Valentine it is the true one still remains a mystery: according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there were at least three early Christian saints by that name. One was a priest in Rome, another a bishop in Terni, and of a third St. Valentine almost nothing is known except that he met his end in Africa. Rather astonishingly, all three Valentines were said to have been martyred on Feb. 14.
Most scholars believe that the true St. Valentine was a priest who attracted the disfavor of Roman emperor Claudius II around 496 AD. Time when the Christianity was spreading all around the Rome calling their believers to marry just with one woman and be faithful to her all their life. Many people were giving.Christian marriage vows, convincing the Christian man to marry emperor Claudius ll was against marrying of their soldiers, becausebelieved a married man is not a god soldiers. For this reason Claudius order every person who were giving marriage vows to his soldiers to be arrested and trialed. St. Valentine from Rome is one of the most famous saints who is recognized by the Catholic church and his story become very famous all around the world after it publishing in the 5 or 6 century AD by Passio Marii et Marthae. It is believed the story borrowed few facts from many from other saints to make it more interesting. It states that Saint Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogatedby Roman Emperor Claudius II in person. Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a discussion with him, attempting to get him to convert to Roman paganism in order to save his life.
Valentine refused,and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead. Because of this he was executed. Before his execution, he is reported to have performed.a miracle by healing Julia, the blind daughter of his jailer Asterius After this event the jailer’s daughter and his forty-four member family members and servants were baptized. On the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he would have written the first “valentine” card to himself, addressed to the daughter of his jailer Asterius, who was no.longer blind, signing as “Your Valentine On the other hand at the same date St. Trifun’s day is celebrated mainly in the Balkans as a public holiday and is a custom that celebrates he ancient belief of connecting people and spirits of the earth. On this day the people are encouraged to visit vineyards and symbolically cut one piece off the vines and then pour the wine on the sacrificed part. It is believed that this custom will bring a year rich with the grapes and that St.Trifun, who is the saint guardian of.wine, will appreciate the offering and deliver another successful harvest People are encouraged to offer copious amounts of wine to drink andcelebrate life and the new coming season
Early in the morning people go to church to baptise a Trifun water to put in a bottle. With this water they splash the vineyard and the field for luck. The priest splash the branch with the holywater and cut out three branches and says “God give a blessing”, three cut branch put under the.wine and brandy Let’s celebrate the double holiday – of love and wine – with a glass of some good grapes’ nectar and maybe a little bit of love poetry. Needless to say, love and wine have much in common, so let’s finish with the French proverb: “May our love be like good wine, grow stronger as it .“grows older (: !C
Association Pavel Satev on Youth Exchange in Romania The association Pavel Satev-Kocani took participation in Youth exchange in Romania (Sannicolau Mare) with 6 representatives. In the period from 12th to 20th May held a 9 day youth exchange entitled Opportunities.(and Chances (OAC).This exchange was multilateral which means there were participants,from 6 different countries including Romania,Albania,Serbia,Po rtugal Bulgaria and Macedonia.Our team was able to organize Macedonian intercultural evening and through photos, videos, power pointpresentations, specific food and beverages we represented Macedonian culture and Pavel Satev organization in the best light.
Association Pavel Satev on Youth Exchange in Albania
So, a week ago Filip, Aleksandar and I got back from a training course in Tirana, Albania. It’s topic was “New Horizons in Human Rights Education” and I have to admit that I went there knowing absolutely nothing about training courses or Human Rights for that matter. It lasted for seven days and on the first we had “Get to know” games.. From the next day on, till the last we got up every morning at 8 h, ate our breakfast, and at 10h the educative part started. We worked usually until 20h in the evening but there were also times when we had to finish working after diner at 22h. I don’t think anybody minded. Instead everyone was actually very pleased to work and learn.
Tips and short tourist guide for Kocani Macedonia f you are planning to visit Kocani here is short explanation of what you can do/ visit in Kocani You can come here by car,bus or train. Kocani is located 120 km from the capital of Macedonia- Skopje. About accomodation you can stay at Gradce Hotel or Hotel Leder which is located in the center of Kocani. Places to visit in Kocani: You can visit the Monument of Freedom which is not far from the center of the city, alsto there is a local orthodox church St.George
It would be interesting if you can visit the Towers which are built in 17 century when the city was under Ottoman administration. There is small lake Gradce with a restaurant and hotel so its very relaxing. We have pool which only works in summer so if you are hot you can chill there. Night life: There are some discos like Aqua which is in the complex of the pool so many singers come there and its very nice. Most of people from Kocani go in coffee bars which are in the center or just walk near the river. Food: We have have many restaurants like traditional and pizza restaurants so the food is very delicios I suggest you to try some macedonian traditional dish like: Tavce Gravce, Polneti Piperki, Tava Oriz, Ajvar and of course Macedonian drink Rakija
Traveling Tips Here are some very useful traveling tips for your vacation: If you’re going to a place you’ve never been to, do a little research before getting there: the internet makes it really easy to find useful information about the weather, currency, how to get to your hostel, and places you should definitely visit… Waking up early gives the opportunity to avoid crowd while visiting main tourist attractions and sketchy areas are less dangerous in the morning Make it a point to avoid other travelers from time to time and start conversations with local people. Basic English is spoken widely all over the world, so it’s easier to communicate with them than you might think, especially when you combine hand ges- tures and body language. Learn from those who live in the country you’re visiting. People enrich your travels more than sights do.
Couchsurfing is a large online community of travelers who share their spare rooms or couch- es with strangers for free. I think couchsurfing is a great idea. It gives you the chance to really meet the locals and to see parts of the city that 99% of tourists never experience. It also gives you the chance to meet people on a deeper level and hopefully you’ll make life-long friends. I also don’t think it is a great long-term solution for ac- commodation because it isn’t always possible to find somewhere to stay. I suggest a mix of hostels and couchsurfing. Taste a bit of everything when you travel, espe- cially if you don’t know what it is. Ask local peo- ple for recommendations. Eat street food. Don’t be scared of the food. Travelers have fallen victim to overcharging by a number of dishonest taxi drivers around the world, and these folks are usually successful in taking extra money from travelers because most times travelers are unaware of the unscrupulous thieving tactics they use.
Association Pavel Satev on Youth Exchange in Romania Hello, reader, we are the people that presented Macedonia in the“project “Youth are in the Nature via the organization “Pavel Satev’’.This project was realized in Amasya, Turkey and it had over 50 participants from 7 different nationalities. Together we learned about life and tradition in different countries. We had a great time together and we made friends with people from all around the world
Another Way To Say “I love you” Some of you think that it is hard to talk to person whom you fall in love. Maybe you can show your love with your hands and gestures. It is optional. However if you are either deaf or mute, you have one choice that to use sign lan- guage. Although this language can be insuffi- cient in some areas, it actually helps people to get connection with community. The definition of this term is that A sign language (also signed language or simply signing) is a lan- guage which uses manual communication and body language to convey meaning, as opposed to acoustically conveyed sound patterns. This can involve simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker’s thoughts.This indicates that the people who made some stranger movements around you were using sign language. It is possible but you assume that they have mentally disorders.
Deaf people only use sign language to communicate with others.In case you have a deaf friends, then you should learn sign language too. However, the percentage of the individuals who know sign language and are not deaf is unfortunately low. This leads to comunicational breakdowns since deaf people can only understand other deaf people. You should handle with this concern to create a healthy society and start to learn the signs of your mother-tongue. It is a little bit weird that there is no universal sign language but if you make a brainstorm you will realize that the picture behind words can change from a culture to another one. We have many terms which is shown similarly in many sign languages but some of them are not repre- sented in every language. reach people who have to use sign language. During the course, I have seen the difficulties about being deaf or mute.Therefore, I recomended this course to all my friends. Now, many people can find another way to say I LOVE YOU.
The magazine was created in cooperation with EVS volunteers in Association Pavel Satev - Kocani and eWorld community
Association Pavel Satev - Kocani Karl Marks 64 2300 Kocani Macedonia Editor Sara Gorgieva