Candle Church

Candle Church has been celebrated in Petäjävesi Old Church on Boxing Days since 1998. Before the year 1998 they spent candle church in Petäjävesi New Church but only about twenty people attended , a lot less than now. To Petäjävesi Old Church comes lots of more people, even from neighbouring communes or even longer distances. But now I'm going to tell about the last Candle Church:

Programme included:
• Bible reading, some prayers and a little sermon
• Christmas carols

Outside was a camp fire for sausages and in some years there has been a possibility for children to ride a horse.

There were about 250 people in the church last time. It has been almost full every year. About a half of people were families, third of the people attending being children. And of course there were also older people.

The church lasted for about half-an-hour. In the church there's as cold as outside. It was windy outside during the service but it wasn't cold because the temperature wasn't below zero. Fire fighters and a sacristan needed to do a lot of work to keep candles on. The people had flashlights and seat pads with them and they got to keep their hats on the head.

Over all the Candle church is very popular and a nice event.

Veera

Questionnaire

We got this questionnaire to ask people about church and their habits to be contact with church. It included 10 questions and down below is the questions and answers we asked and we got from people of petäjävesi.

1) What is your reason to visit this place?
”I was a bus driver”
”It is a very nice place”
”Lives there, parties and visitors”
”Because it is UNESCO site”

2) Why do people usually visit this place?
Because it was nice place or it is unesco site. Those were answers we got.

3) What is your religion?
Lutheran,
Catholic,
Prostentant,
No religion

4) Do you go to the Old Church often or first time?
It was pretty much 50-50% for first time and more than once.

5) What is the most attractive point here for you?
Wooden Architecture and friends(?), people told us.

6) Do you know who and why desinged and built this chucrh?
Most people didn't know this, only some of them. It was built by jaako klementin pojan.

7) Do you know anything about this church?
-It's about 300 years old
Kids have been played there
A little bit
It is Unesco memory

8) Do you know other sites of UNESCO in Finland?
Two simple answer than were kinda 50-50% too:
Yes and no

9) Witch sites of UNESCO in have you visited?
For this question we got 7 answers:
No,
suomenlinna,
old rauma,
only here,
ruukki,
tuomiokirkko,
swedish church

10) What kind of social programme would you recommend to be organised here?
We got also got 7 answers from people to this question:
Concerts,
trips,
nothing,
cafe,
walking,
weddings,
party


-Veikka and Jakub 23.3.2012

History about the old church in Petäjävesi

English
The church is built between 1763 and 1765.The Petäjävesi Old Church is a wooden church located in Petäjävesi, Finland. It was inscribed in 1994 on the UNESCO world heritage list. The clock tower that has been built in 1821 is connected to it. The church was placed on a small cape on the west bank of the sound between Petäjävesi and Jämsänvesi. The place is typical for an old countryside church.The church was designed by a church construction worker Jaakko Klemetinpoika Leppänen. In 1821 the 2 windows of the church were enlarged and the vestry was moved from the northern cross point as the extension of the eastern point. The clock tower was connected to the west end of the church.

Finnish

Kirkko rakennettiin vuosien 1763 ja 1765 välillä. Petäjäveden Vnha kirkko on puinen kirkko, joka sijaitsee Petäjävedellä, Suomessa. Se valittiin vuonna 1994 UNESCO:n maailmanperintökohteiden listalle. Sen kellotorni valmistui vuonna 1821. Kirkko sijoitettiin pienelle niemelle Petäjäveden ja Jämsänveden välille. Paikka on tyypillinen vanhalle maalaiskirkolle. Kirkon sunnitteli työmies Jaakko Klemetinpoika Leppänen. Vuonna 1821 kahta kirkon ikkunaa suurennettiin ja ristiä siirrettiin pohjoiselta puolelta itäiselle puolelle. Kirkon torni yhdistettiin kirkon länsipäähän.


Czech

Kostel v Petäjävesi byl postaven mezi lety 1763 a 1765. Starý kostel v Petäjävesi je postaven ze dřeva. V roce 1994 byl tento kostel zapsán do pamatek UNESCO. Je k němu připojena věž s hodinami,která byla postavena v roce 1821.Kostel byl umístěn mezi městy Petäjävesi a Jämsävesi, na západním břehu. Místo je velice vhodne pro staré kostely. Kostel byl navržen Jaakko Klementinpoika Leppänen. V roce 1821 byly dvě okna kostela rozšířena a sakristie byla přesunuta ze Severního kříže do místa východu. Věž s hodinami byla pripojena na západním konci kostela.


Written by: Henri Savolainen

Wirkko Magazine Project January-April 2012

According to our project we have divided these responsibilities between us:

Students take photos (4-10) of their home UNESCO sites, it means Petäjävesi in Finland and the Green Hill in the Czech Republic. They will complete at least 10 questionnaires with visitors to the sites and prepare speech bubbles with their partner for the magazine comic.

Filip and Henry - the history of the churches.
Daniel and Topias - the architecture of the churches.
Eve and Gabriela - autumn in the churches (the surroundings and special events held there).
Gabriela and Eve will prepare Easter and complete the questionnaire because Eve will be in the Czech Republic.

Can anybody from the Finnish students write about Easter in Petäjävesi because Eve will not be in Finland?

Michaela M. – I have written an article for Michaela – I interviewed the local priest Mr. Záleský about New Year Eve mass and one student took photos. Michaela will make speech bubbles and photos for the magazine.

Veera, could you take some photos from Petäjävesi and write about a mass or events which took place during Christmas there ?

Spring is coming. David will prepare photos and information about 14 February, i.e. St.Valentine´s Day and Shrove Tuesday on 21 February on the Green Hill and Henry will add some information with photos about these days in Finland.

Henry, could you answer my question and put it on our blog ? Could you take some photos in spring and send them to David? If there is anybody, could you ask them our questions from the questionnaire and then give them to Jakub and Veikka who make graphs.

Jakub and Veikka.
According to our project we should ask visitors to the places 10 times during our project, so that there would be 10 different dates and I suggest asking 10 visitors each time.
(Do you agree?)
Jakub and Veikka will complete the questionnaires about their sites and later they will compare them.

Stina and Radka Could you compare the churches - Petäjävesi is a lutheran church and Green Hill is catholic.
Girls, are there any differences in services and masses and other events?
I asked our school priest Mr.Záleský to help.
Stina, could you ask somebody at your church ?

Daniel and Topias will help you about the differences in the way how churches are decorated.
Boys, could you send each other or your teachers some results?

Tessa and Michaela – girls, could you look at web pages of the sites and write a survey of all events which take place there? We could visit some concerts or services. For example, there will be a concert on the Green Hill on 13 May. Let´s go .
Inka and Natálie
Have you written a story or a fairy tale about the churches?

Alžběta and Noora will take pictures and ask visitors in summer.

Mariama and Teresa , could you help the others to take pictures and write speech bubbles ?

Jitka and Jenni Could we help our students and contact local church authorities to find out statistic information about the sites. Our final task is: How are the churches important in the 21 st century?

Marjaana and Milada will help you with all IT things.

Thank you very much for cooperation.
I wish you good luck with your work, enjoy your visits to the places and share your partner´s ideas.


Have a nice time.


18 March 2012 Jitka, the coordinator.

Shrove Tuesday

Moi everyone!
The Czech group of students involving in the project Wirkko magazine have tried to find some information about this typical Finnish festival.
On Tuesday (21.2.2012) is Shrove Tuesday - Laskiaistiistai as the Finns call it.
While the Brazilians prepare themselves to the long Lent by doing their samba carnival, the Finns go sliding down snow-covered hills. Even if this catholic tradition has lost it's religious significance after the Reformation, this old custom still survives. Laskiainen is a real winter festival – the Finns get to play in the snow and see various winter sports....as long as there is any snow. This year there are piles of snow everywhere. If the Finns want to see kids celebrating Laskiainen, they go for example to Pyynikki. If the Finns want to see students´ Laskiainen, they go to 'Kaupinojan sauna' at Näsijärvi where the International and Sports section of Tamy is organizing a Winter Fun happening. There's downhill sliding, snow soccer, snow frisbee etc. and of course the possibility to go to the sauna and try the chilly water by swimming in the icehole! According to an old belief the Finns should be silent in the Shrove sauna if they want to escape the mosquitos in the coming summer. 
The food played (and still plays) a big role at the Shrove time. The table had to be full of fatty and rich food. Today Finns are still eating pea soup and Shrove buns or pancake with whipped cream, just like their medieval ancestors. Traditional Finnish Shrove buns are baked every Shrove Sunday (it is on 19 February this year). Others enjoy them with raspberry jam and whipped cream, others prefer almond paste and whipped cream.

According to www.finlandforum.org

In the Czech Republic people celebrate Shrovetide during the whole February especially in the southern Moravia and in the Highlands in „ Veselý kopec“ (Merry Hill) by special costume parades. People enjoy the days before the long fast for the Lent period. They go to parties, balls and do sports, too. There are food parties called „zabijačka“ to have a lot of pork feasts.

There is no special event in the Church of St. Jan Nepomucký on the Green Hill.

There are special services on Ash Wednesday in churches.

Our question is : „ Do you really celebrate Shrove Sunday in Jyväskylä, too ?

Jitka Stráská and students of the project COM-BP-2011-002

A short article about our presentation of the Finnish part of our EU Comenius project for students from prima to kvarta class

On the 21 December 2011 Natálie, David and Michaela met students from prima, sekunda,tercie and kvarta classes (more than 100 students) to share their experiences of our stay in the Finnish city of Jyväskylä, where we worked on our EU project with pupils from Kuokkala koulu.

David began the presentation with basic information about Finland and its capital city Helsinki.He talked about  interesting places which we had visited  and told funny stories which had happened during our stay in the beautiful northern country at partner school, at new Finnish home and while travelling there in November 2011.

Natálie went on and she talked about our flight from Prague to Helsinki Vantaa airport and journey by coach to Jyväskylä.Younger students could see pictures of our partner school called Kuokkala koulu. Natálie talked about school subjects, timetable, breaks, school canteen and afterschool activities.Which place of interest did the students really like ? The beautiful Old Church in Petäjävesi, which is the main focus of our project. The Old Church is on the list of the UNESCO World Heritage sites and our project deals with the importance of religious buildings (this church and the Church of St. Jan Nepomucký on the Green Hill) in the 21st century. Students visited the new church in Kuokkala, Suomenlinna fortress in Helsinki and Alvar Aalto´s museum  near the city centre in Jyväskylä. Natálie talked enthusiastically about various kinds of free time activities. She mentioned evenings with Finnish partners in their homes, where they played various plays and games, talked, danced and listened to music, watched DVDs and worked on computers. All students spoke English but of course, they tried to introduce and teach one another their own languages. Students met Pavel Skrbek, a Czech ice-hockey player in Jyväskylä , after a match with Helsinki ice-hockey club.

All students enjoyed Home economics class because they together  made delicious pancakes and offered them to the teachers of the school as well as the headmaster.

At the end of the presentation Michaela introduced herself in the Finnish language and younger students could see how difficult and beautiful the  language is.

 In the end Mrs Stráská thanked Natálie, David and Michaela for their presentation. She spoke about the importance of learning English as it is the  language of international communication which enables its speakers to meet different cultures, find new friends and broaden their minds. The presentation showed that Czech students really enjoyed their stay and work in Finland.

The students of lower grades liked the presentation and we hope that in the future they will participate in similar Comenius Lifelong learning programmes.

Natálie Zelinková

Jitka Stráská

The Mass at the Church of St. John Nepomuk on the Green Hill on 31 st December 2011

The festive ceremony was unforgettable for its fabulous atmosphere. The church was full of people from Žďár nad Sázavou, Nové Město na Moravě and also from villages nearby.

After the mass the Czech national anthem, the European Union anthem and the carol ´Christ the Saviour was born´ were played. At midnight all people gathered in front of the Church to welcome the New Year.

Vladimír Vojtěch Záleský and  Jitka Stráská