Scouting charity Christmas expedition
December 28, 2006
Meet Piotr Trombinski of the Scouting Association of Poland and come with him as he delivers Christmas presents to Poles in Ukraine and Belarus.
Piotr Trombinski, 23 years old, has collected goods from all over Poland to send to Poles in Ukraine and Belarus.
Accompanied by around 500 scouts aged between 13 – 23, and packed into nine buses, Piotr went to distribute the presents to around 1500 Polish families in territories that used to be in Poland.
Listen to the news by the Polskie Radio SA > Listen
Charities recipients of Christmas gifts from Sandals
December 28, 2006
The Management & Staff of Sandals Grande Antigua Resort & Spa, Antigua and Barbuda, took the time to spread Christmas cheer to the children in the community.
The resort’s annual activities commenced with candies and school supplies that were donated by Leartis James from Chicago, USA, a guest staying at Sandals, to the children of St John’s Catholic School and Cedar Grove Primary School.
Sandals’ seasonal community effort continued with the hosting of a Christmas party for the children of the Good Shepherd home, customary for this time of year. On hand to present the gifts was Santa with his helpers.
Santa and his team were suitably entertained by the children in song and dance as they eagerly awaited the presentation of their gifts, together with a photograph with Santa for each child.
After the presentation, the children were treated to a special Christmas lunch especially prepared by the food and beverage team at the resort. The week’s festivities continued with the annual visit to the children’s ward at Holberton Hospital. The children were totally excited as they happily greeted Santa, complete with a large sack full of toys from Sandals.
Related Links > http://www.antigua-barbuda.org
Christmas News from Tristan, Falkland Islands
December 28, 2006
On Friday the 15th December all Government Departments on Tristan closed for the Christmas break including the islands only supermarket, everything will remain closed until the 8th January when everyone returns back to work. If you run short of anything, or forget an item, you can always depend on borrowing from a neighbor. The following day was the annual sheep shearing day, when all families came together to flock the sheep into the only one main sheep pen to shear their sheep (seven breeding sheep per family, each with their own ear mark) and collect those which would be slaughtered for Christmas. After the offices parties and drinks the day/night before (locally known as breaking up day) not everyone felt like chasing sheep.
Stuff roast leg of mutton is the traditional dish on Christmas day, although turkey is now also becoming popular. At one time families would celebrate Christmas together, living at one of the couples house for a month, this has gently faded out and instead families come together and take it in turns to cook a Christmas meal at their house during the holiday period. On the 27th December most people take their children camping out west at the patches, where they can swim at Runaway Beach and play in the rock pools, with their Christmas presents, if it happens to be a boat. Hand Lines are being replace by rods, and all keen fishermen will compete to land the biggest fish for the braai, to go with the lamb chops, lobster, garlic bread etc, not to mention the cold beer and wines. Most of the campers will remain at the patches until Old Years Eve, when many will return to celebrate Old Years Eve/Night when some of the young ones will dress as ugly as possible to frighten the children, before attending a drinks party at the houses of the Administrators and Chief Islander. Tristanians work continuous throughout the year, with maintenance to their houses, fishing, tending to their animals and crops etc and this is one time when they stop and spend time with their family and friends.
The Fishing vessel Kelso arrived with the Salvage team on Friday the 22nd December to start the removal of pollutants from the Stranded Oil Rig at the back of the island just before Christmas. Also onboard are three environmentalists working on behalf of the Tristan Government, continuing the marine survey that Sue Scott previously started three months ago. The weather did not allow any boats to visit the vessel until Christmas Eve when the Police Rib and its crew made a run to collect the nine bags of mail and essential items. The weather remained good and on the 26th December a boat from the rig came to the settlement to collect a diving compressor and two Tristan fishermen to act as guides for the salvage team. A number of personal items still remain on the vessel and these will be collected when there is another break in the weather. The salvage Tug De Hong of 3180mt, which departed Cape Town on Christmas Eve, will arrive at Tristan today Thursday the 28th December to assist the salvage team in the removal of heavy items from the oilrig, before making an attempt to tow and scuttle her in deep water.
If you run short of anything, or forget an item, you can always depend on borrowing from a neighbor. The following day was the annual sheep shearing day, when all families came together to flock the sheep into the only one main sheep pen to shear their sheep (seven breeding sheep per family, each with their own ear mark) and collect those which would be slaughtered for Christmas. After the offices parties and drinks the day/night before (locally known as breaking up day) not everyone felt like chasing sheep.
Stuff roast leg of mutton is the traditional dish on Christmas day, although turkey is now also becoming popular. At one time families would celebrate Christmas together, living at one of the couples house for a month, this has gently faded out and instead families come together and take it in turns to cook a Christmas meal at their house during the holiday period. On the 27th December most people take their children camping out west at the patches, where they can swim at Runaway Beach and play in the rock pools, with their Christmas presents, if it happens to be a boat. Hand Lines are being replace by rods, and all keen fishermen will compete to land the biggest fish for the braai, to go with the lamb chops, lobster, garlic bread etc, not to mention the cold beer and wines. Most of the campers will remain at the patches until Old Years Eve, when many will return to celebrate Old Years Eve/Night when some of the young ones will dress as ugly as possible to frighten the children, before attending a drinks party at the houses of the Administrators and Chief Islander. Tristanians work continuous throughout the year, with maintenance to their houses, fishing, tending to their animals and crops etc and this is one time when they stop and spend time with their family and friends.
The Fishing vessel Kelso arrived with the Salvage team on Friday the 22nd December to start the removal of pollutants from the Stranded Oil Rig at the back of the island just before Christmas. Also onboard are three environmentalists working on behalf of the Tristan Government, continuing the marine survey that Sue Scott previously started three months ago. The weather did not allow any boats to visit the vessel until Christmas Eve when the Police Rib and its crew made a run to collect the nine bags of mail and essential items. The weather remained good and on the 26th December a boat from the rig came to the settlement to collect a diving compressor and two Tristan fishermen to act as guides for the salvage team. A number of personal items still remain on the vessel and these will be collected when there is another break in the weather. The salvage Tug De Hong of 3180mt, which departed Cape Town on Christmas Eve, will arrive at Tristan today Thursday the 28th December to assist the salvage team in the removal of heavy items from the oilrig, before making an attempt to tow and scuttle her in deep water.
Related Links > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_da_Cunha#Geography
Japanese TV celebrates Christmas with Norwegian salmon
December 28, 2006
On the evening before Christmas Eve, Norwegian salmon was spotlighted in thousands of Japanese homes in the Kanto region when TV channel TV Asahi broadcast a Christmas special on it.
Japan does not celebrate Christmas as we know it in Europe, although this particular evening has a Christmas feel to it as the Japanese gather in their homes and watch TV.
On Saturday, 23 December, TV Asahi broadcast a one-hour Christmas special in the popular programme series ”Chokusai no Ookoku”, or ”Colourful Country Food”, which on this occasion was all about Norway and salmon.
Viewers were fully introduced to what differentiates Norwegian salmon from traditional Japanese wild salmon, courtesy of a TV team that visited Norway and filmed part of the programme at a salmon farm in western Norway. The programme was presented by the well-known Japanese actress Hiroko Yakushimaru.
Source > www.fishupdate.com
Christmas greetings > Scandinavian style
December 28, 2006
Holiday lawn display is tribute to Nyberg family heritage
A tribute to the Scandinavian heritage of the Nyberg family in Gladstone is evident in this holiday display on the front lawn of Anders Nyberg in Gladstone. The display includes a figure of “Jul Tomten,” the Scandinavian version of Santa Claus, riding on a sparkstottnig, a Swedish kick sled. Merry Christmas greetings, complete with national flags, are also pronounced in both Swedish and Finnish.
Americans have their Santa Claus. The French have their “Pere Noel” (Father Christmas). He’s “Kris Kringle” (Christ Child) to the Germans. The Italians know him as “Babbo Natale” (Father Christmas).
The legend of the benevolent Christmas visitor is almost universal and what better way to showcase your heritage than to celebrate the Christmas season with your ethnic equivalent to Santa.
“Jul Tomten,” poised on his “sparkstottnig” on the front lawn of Anders Nyberg in Gladstone, has been creating quite a lot of interest to passersby. Jul Tomten is the Scandinavian version of Santa Claus, and a sparkstottnig is a Swedish kick sled. Both celebrate the Swedish and Finnish heritage of the Nyberg family.
“People drive by and have to take a second look,” said Anders’ father, Carl Nyberg, who spearheaded the ethnic Christmas project. “I don’t think this has ever been done before and our family thought it would be a cute thing, something different from the standard wreaths and candles. It’s something a little bit different.”
Included in the lawn display are two signs with the greeting “Merry Christmas” one in Swedish (“God Jul”) and Finnish (Hauskaa Joulua”). Each sign includes a flag of the respective country.
“The American equivalent to ‘Jul’ would be ‘Yule’ and a ‘Tomten’ is a little Brownie or elf,” the senior Nyberg explained. “It is the Scandinavians’ equivalent of Santa Claus, and it appears on all Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish greeting cards for the Christmas season. We have lots of Tomten in our house. We decided to make this display to honor our heritage, as my late wife, Florence, was born of Finnish immigrants, and my parents were immigrants from Sweden.”
Nyberg said the inspiration for this project came when his niece brought him some Christmas napkins that depicted the brownie or elf standing on a kick sled.
“In the Nyberg family, we have two of these sleds, one dating back to 1920,” said Nyberg. “My father used this for transportation to and from his blacksmith shop. There were a number of these sleds around during the Depression, when the streets were still snow laden. When my brother, Stanley, broke his leg one winter, brother Lloyd and I would take him to the fish shack before school, and pick him up at noon. A dozen years ago when the Olympics were held in Lillehammar, Norway, there were many of these sleds shown on TV.”
Although the idea to create the display was initially thought of as “kinda silly,” the family quickly got into the spirit.
“It was a family fun project and once we got into it, we really got kinda excited about it,” said Nyberg. “Betty (Nyberg’s daughter-in-law) made everything above the shoulders, and Lloyd (Nyberg’s brother) and Anders helped with the lower torso. Our thanks to St. Vinnie for supplying the body parts.”
Although Nyberg has been to Sweden on a number of occasions, he said he has never visited there over the Christmas holidays. Nevertheless, he believes the custom of the Christmas “elf” leaving gifts for children is similar to the gift giving of the American Santa Claus.
Kazakh teens on a Christmas visit to Poland
December 28, 2006
According to Polskie Radio SA 19 Kazakh children of Polish origin, whose ancestors had been deported to Kazakhstan from Poland by the communist authorities have arrived on a Christmas visit to Kielce. Over the one week stay in Poland the Kazakh teens will have a chance to learn about Polish culture and tradition, visiting places important for Polish history. They will also make contacts with their Polish peers.
“This will help them feel the emotional ties to the homeland of their forefathers”, said Fr. Banasik of Caritas Polska, Poland’s largest charity organization which is hosting the group from Kazakhstan.
Hundreds lined the streets of Nevis to celebrate Christmas
December 28, 2006
Hundreds lined the streets of Charlestown dressed-to-impress on Saturday night to commemorate the Christmas holiday.
The shops and boutiques of Charlestown remained open until the wee hours of the morning on Christmas to accommodate late Christmas shoppers as many did their last-minute shopping for friends and family.
One patron explained that traveling to Charlestown on Christmas Eve was a long-standing tradition in Nevis.
“It’s years now that we know you go to town on Christmas Eve to do your little last-minute shopping and so. There are always a lot of festivities and we always have a good time eating barbecue and watching the fireworks,” they said.
“However, we all know that Christmas is more than food and fireworks. It is a time when people come together to celebrate the birth of the Christ and I just hope that this Christmas we can all put aside the hatred and violence and just remember that the true meaning of Christmas is Christ.”
Wondering where St. Kitts and Nevis are located? 
Well, here is a link for you to find out more > http://www.geographia.com/stkitts-nevis
