Lily of the Valley Girls’ Secondary School together with its Comenius Partners: Hebbelschule, Kiel (Germany), and Sao Bruno, Caxias (Portugal), recently participated in a new project involving video conferencing with a Christmas theme.

This project which is now in its third year, focussed on the cultural and religious traditions of Christmas. But the peak of this Christmas celebration was the carols and the culinary exchange.

The typical Christmas Sweet Recipes of each country were exchanged by email. These recipes were prepared by the Home Economics classes and shared with the school. The typical recipes shared by the partner schools were elisen lebkuchen and zimtsterne (cinnamon stars) from Germany and Pumpkin filhos from Portugal. The Maltese recipes sent were St. Martin’s cake and honey rings.

The second part of the project involved the preparation of a Christmas box, where the students had to look for ten items which depict our Christmas traditions and culture. The Maltese Box included a small crib, stamps with a Christmas theme, a book about the story of cribs and pasturi, a CD with Christmas Carols, Calends, gulbiena etc. The students also sent self-made Christmas Cards with short messages and Christmas greetings. On the day of the Video Conference the students had the opportunity to open the German and Portuguese boxes. These were filled with typical objects like German and Portuguese sweets, decorations and Santa Claus and Baby Jesus. The programme for the Comenius Christmas was full of activity and an hour with each partner country passed quickly. The programme ended with the three schools all singing Silent Night together and in their native which truly created a sense of unity.

The video communication went on without a hitch due to the hard work of the IT technicians. All the students enjoyed themselves tremendously and they all wanted to pass on their warm wishes for a special Christmas.