Welcome to my web page

My presentation - The picture of Dorian Gray

Hello! You can look at my presentation of book - The picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde in Word or in PowerPoint:-)

posted by Verunka @ 9:34 AM 1 comments

Easter recipe

Praline Easter Cookies

1/2 c Butter
1 1/2 c Packed brown sugar
1 ea Egg
1 1/2 c Flour
1 ts Vanilla
1 c Chopped pecans

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter, sugar and egg. Stir in flour, vanilla and pecans. Mix well by hand.
Shape into balls about the size of walnuts, place on cookie sheets and flatten to about 1/8 inch.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely

posted by Verunka @ 3:12 AM 0 comments

Easter in Czech Republic

Easter is a symbol of early spring and that is the reason why all of us store our winter outfits including huge ski jackets and coats and take out the summer clothes. By the time all of these chores are done, the Holy Friday comes. On this day, school children will stay at home and help their mothers to bake numerous cakes and many different desserts. They will also buy or get branches of the fruit trees from the garden that will bloom on Monday. At 6 o’clock in the evening it is time for Holy Friday Mass. Saturday is the last day in which final touches are made in cleaning and preparing smoked ham with a horseradish. Easter Sunday might be the most important day in some other cultures, but this is not the case in Czech Republic. On Sunday morning people attend church and afterwards women stay at home and all the men and boys go together to visit their female family members. By tradition, when the door is opened by a younger woman or girl, the men splash her with water from a plastic bottle with a hole in the cap. However, if it is an older woman who opens, the men splash her hair with some kind of perfume. These symbolize long life and youth. After that, the men pretend to hit her with a whip that is home made out of dried bush branches. That symbolizes the long health of the woman. In return she offers them food, drink and some chocolate eggs. This process repeats until the men visit all their family members. The Easter Monday mass is the most important one. Even the people who did not attend the previous masses are present at this one. Later when people come home, men go out this time to visit neighbors and friends. Women stay at home waiting for male friends to visit. The process from the previous day repeats with one exception. The teenage friends and classmates of the girls come to their houses, and instead of using a small amount of water in a bottle, they carry a big bucket full of ice cold water. This is often an interesting show for the entire neighborhood as the girls are running down the street and a group of young men with the buckets following them. Tradition says that the next day is the girl’s turn to perform the process of visiting. However this never happens; probably because girls are somewhat wiser and would not want to chase the men with water. The sad part about this tradition is that it is slowly disappearing from our culture. People are moving to the bigger cities where it is not “cool” anymore. Nevertheless, there are still enough people in our village who come to visit my mother’s house every year and I hope that we will never loose our wonderful traditions.

posted by Verunka @ 2:36 AM 0 comments

posted by Verunka @ 5:51 AM 2 comments

Tourist guide

Hello! You can look at my presentation - Tourist guide of the town of Prague - HERE!

posted by Verunka @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

posted by Verunka @ 12:33 AM 0 comments

Christmas

Christmas In BRITISH ISLES
Many of our current American ideals about the way Christmas ought to be derive from the English Victorian Christmas, such as that described in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The caroling, the gifts, the feast, and the wishing of good cheer to all - these ingredients came together to create that special Christmas atmosphere.
The custom of gift-giving on Christmas dates only to Victorian times. Before then it was more common to exchange gifts on New Year's Day or Twelfth Night. Santa Claus is known by British children as Father Christmas. Father Christmas, these days, is quite similar to the American Santa, but his direct ancestor is a certain pagan spirit who regularly appeared in medieval mummer's plays. The old-fashioned Father Christmas was depicted wearing long robes with sprigs of holly in his long white hair. Children write letters to Father Christmas detailing their requests, but instead of dropping them in the mailbox, the letters are tossed into the fireplace. The draft carries the letters up the chimney, and theoretically, Father Christmas reads the smoke. Gifts are opened Christmas afternoon.
From the English we get a story to explain the custom of hanging stockings from the mantelpiece. Father Christmas once dropped some gold coins while coming down the chimney. The coins would have fallen through the ash grate and been lost if they hadn't landed in a stocking that had been hung out to dry. Since that time children have continued to hang out stockings in hopes of finding them filled with gifts.
The custom of singing carols at Christmas is also of English origin. During the middle ages, groups of serenades called "waits" would travel around from house to house singing ancient carols and spreading the holiday spirit. The word "carol" means "song of joy." Most of the popular old carols we sing today were written in the nineteenth century.
The hanging of greens, such as holly and ivy, is a British winter tradition with origins far before the Christian era. Greenery was probably used to lift sagging winter spirits and remind the people that spring was not far away. The custom of kissing under the mistletoe is descended from ancient Druid rites. The decorating of Christmas trees, though primarily a German custom, has been widely popular in England since 1841 when Prince Albert had a Christmas tree set up in Windsor Castle for his wife Queen Victoria, and their children.
The word "wassail" is derived from the Anglo-Saxon phrase waes hael, which means "good health." Originally, wassail was a beverage made of mulled ale, curdled cream, roasted apples, nuts, eggs, and spices. It was served for the purpose of enhancing the general merriment of the season. Like many of the ancient customs, "wassailing" has a legend to explain its origin. It seems that a beautiful Saxon maiden named Rowena presented Prince Vortigen with a bowl of wine while toasting him with the words "Waes hael." Over the centuries a great deal of ceremony had developed around the custom of drinking wassail. The bowl is carried into a room with great fanfare, a traditional carol about the drink is sung, and finally, the steaming hot beverage is served.
For many years in England, a roasted boar's head has been associated with Holiday feasting. The custom probably goes back to the Norse practice of sacrificing a boar at Yuletide in honor of the god Freyr. One story tells of a student at Oxford's Queen College who was attacked on Christmas Day by a wild boar. All he had in his hand to use as a weapon was his copy of Aristotle, so he shoved the book down the boar's throat. Wanting to retrieve his book, the student cut off the animal's head and brought it back to the college where it was served for Christmas dinner with much pomp and ceremony.
The celebration of Boxing Day, which takes place on December 26 - the feast of St. Stephen, is a part of the holiday season unique to Great Britain. Traditionally, it is on this day that the alms box at every English church is opened and the contents are distributed to the poor. Also, this is the day that servants traditionally got the day off to celebrate with their families. It became traditional for working people to break open their tip boxes on this day. Boxing Day began in the mid-nineteenth century when the custom of tipping by rich persons to persons in service positions had apparently gotten out of hand. Children and others pretended to be in the trades and solicited tips. The custom was expanded to giving to anyone and everyone who had less money than you did, and soon the streets at Christmastime were full of aggressive soliciting of tips. To contain the nuisance "Boxing Day" was designated as the one day for giving to the less fortunate.

posted by Verunka @ 12:24 AM 0 comments

Christmas

Christmas In CZECH REPUBLIC
Centuries ago, the western half of Czech republic was known as Bohemia. This was the 10th century home of Good King Wenceslaus, the main character in the familiar English Christmas carol. It is said that English troops, fighting in Bohemia hundreds of years later, brought the song home with them.
In Czech republic, St. Nicholas is called Svaty Mikalas and is believed to climb to earth down from heaven on a golden rope along with his companions: an angel and a whip-carrying devil.
An ancient tradition shared by Czech republic and Poland involves cutting a branch from a cherry tree putting it in water indoors to bloom. If the bloom opens in time for Christmas it is considered good luck, and also a sign that the winter may be short. The hope of early spring helps keep spirits up during the long dark winter.

posted by Verunka @ 12:21 AM 0 comments

My presentation of the town of FRYŠTÁK

Hello! I will be happy, if you read my project - in WORD presentation of the town of Fryšták! or in POWERPOINT here.

posted by Verunka @ 8:25 AM 0 comments

THE CITY OF ZLIN

Zlín lies in the eastern part of the Czech Republic in the Dřevnice River Valley. The city is famous because of the Bata shoe factories and also for its original, functionalist architecture. There are many companies involved in mechanical engineering; so most people - exactly 18 095 - work in this industry. The size of Zlín is 123 km2. Zlín has about 80 850 inhabitants.

posted by Verunka @ 7:10 AM 0 comments

Verunka - web page

My name is Veronika Večerková and this is my first web page. I study at Thomas Bata University in Zlín and I live there too. I would like to acquaint you with my school, Zlín, my hobbies and so on...

posted by Verunka @ 3:18 AM 0 comments