• 17 March Happy St Patrick's Day!
• Going Green
• How European Are You?
• Schooltime Slang
• Spring has sprung
• The Anatomy of the EU
• The Real St. Patrick
• The Turin Shroud

W marcu wszyscy Irlandczycy świętują Dzień św. Patryka. W Warszawie, Dublinie, Nowym Jorku, wszędzie tam, gdzie są Irlandczycy, 17 marca jest wyjątkowym dniem.

Ireland, otherwise known as The Emerald Isle, has many traditions. St Patrick's Day is Ireland's greatest national holiday. On that day Irish celebrate the anniversary of the death of the missionary who became the patron saint of Ireland. The day is celebrated with parades, speeches, festive dinners and dances. It is a happy holiday for the Irish, no matter where they are: in Dublin, New York or Warsaw. Green is the colour of the day, and everybody wears a green shamrock. Why a shamrock? Well, there's a legend that St Patrick used the shamrock to explain the mystery of the Holy Trinity. The triple leaf and single stem symbolise the Holy Trinity.

Irish toast

Here's to absent friends and here's twice to absent enemies!

Irish superstitions

If the palm of your right hand itches, expect to receive some money.

Leprechauns

Leprechauns are Irish fairies. They look like small, old men wearing a crooked hat and a leather apron. Leprechauns are moody, can be unfriendly, live alone and keep themselves busy repairing shoes. They also have a pot of gold which is hidden somewhere. If you ever see a leprechaun, run away, or he may play a nasty trick on you.

Irish joke

An American tourist arrived in Dublin. He hired a taxi and asked the driver to show him the sights. The taxi driver took him on a ride around the city.

Glossary

Planning a trip to London in March? Make sure you're there on St Patrick's Day, March 17th, when everyone (well, almost) claims Irish ancestry. But wherever you are around the globe, if you really are Irish you can't fail to be popular; and if you haven't got green blood in you, you still can't fail to have a fantastic time.

Some say that if you would like to buy a passport on the black market, an Irish one would be the most expensive. Those warm-hearted, open and friendly people are welcome everywhere. No wonder, then, that St Patrick's Day is celebrated in more countries around the world than any other National Holiday. On this day everybody wants to be Irish.

The first St Patrick's Day Parade was organised by the Society of the Charitable Irish in Boston in 1737. Nowadays parades are organised in most places where the Irish have been forced, or have chosen, to emigrate. Whether it's Dublin, London, New York, Toronto or Sydney, people flock to participate and to watch. Although it is a commemoration of a Christian saint, it is a day of celebration for all Irish people of all religions and creeds.

For the Irish community in London 17th March is a daylong celebration. As a religious holiday people offer prayers and attend mass. Westminster Cathedral, where one of the chapels is dedicated to St Patrick and other Saints of Ireland, is a favourite destination. Then, of course, there is time to celebrate with parades, parties, galas and balls, with the customary plentiful supply of food and drink.

In London several parades take place in areas with strong Irish connections like Willesden, Kilburn and Lewisham. It's not simply a matter of walking in public from one place to another and back again en masse. This public display of national tradition helps to strengthen community pride and self-confidence. It is also a chance to display Irish culture and heritage, as well as involve and forge links with other ethnic minorities.

The colourful parades always include live traditional Irish music, marching bands and colourful floats full of dancers and schoolchildren dancing Irish jigs. There is much waving of the Irish Tricolour flags, while shamrock and harp symbols are in abundance. The huge dogs taking part in the parades are Irish Wolfhounds, the world's largest breed of dog, known as "the gentle giant".

"Going green" is especially important on this day and everyone should make an attempt to go green in one way or another. Some dress in green, paint their faces, dye their hair or wear green wigs. Others settle for green ribbons and, of course, the customary shamrock. It's also popular on that day to add green food colouring to beer. The phrase "drowning the shamrock" comes from the custom of drinking whiskey down with a shamrock.

Ireland is known as the country of "Céad Míle Failte" or "a hundred thousand welcomes". A warm welcome is always guaranteed and everybody is invited to join in the fun. The Irish see themselves as one large family and on St. Patrick's Day everyone can become part of it. Don't miss your chance! Be Irish for a day!

The World of English

1. How many stars appear on the European Union flag?
2. Who composed the EU anthem Ode to Joy?
3. Where is the European Parliament building situated?
4. When are the next elections scheduled for the European Parliament?
5. Who is the President of European Parliament?
6. Before the expansion of the EU takes place in May 2004, how many people are currently living inside the European Union?
7. Which organization is not part of the European Union?
8. In which year did Ireland join the EU?
9. In which year was the Treaty of Rome, which created the EU (then called the European Economic Community), signed?
10. Which nation did not sign the Treaty of Rome?
11. Spain and Portugal joined the EU in which year?
12. In which year was the Maastricht Treaty signed?
13. How many countries currently use the Euro as their currency?
14. Which of the following is a genuine EU law?
15. What does EMU stand for?
16. Which current member of the EU once ruled an Empire including 4 of the new accession states?
17. Currently, the presidency of the EU is rotated every...
18. What is the name of the Commissioner responsible for enlargement?
19. Which country will have the greatest number of deputies in the EU parliament after enlargement?
20. The European Central Bank is situated in which city?

Answers:

1. 12
2. Beethowen
3. Strasbourg
4. June 2004
5. Pat Cox
6. 370 million
7. the Council of Europe
8. 1973
9. 1957
10. United Kingdom
11. 1986
12. 1992
13. 12
14. The EU is spending Ł35 million to encourage people to buy cut flowers and potted plants
15. Economic and Monetary Union
16. Austria
17. 6 months
18. Gunther Verheugen
19. Poland
20. Frankfurt

Slang is usually the secret argot (language) of a certain group and is used so that outsiders cannot understand it. We therefore have jail slang, the jargon of thieves, the slang of certain occupations, groups and organisations, the dialects of local communities (towns, villages, neighbourhoods), etc. In time, most slang expressions disappear, but some of them enter the general language. School pupils have long had their own special jargon which changes from generation to generation. But it also includes some long-lasting terms such as 'cool' which has been around for nearly half a century. Today we will look at some of the slang found at Beverley Hills High School and many other schools across America.

FAILURE TO ATTEND SCHOOL

ATTEMPTS TO IMPRESS AND/OR FLATTER THE TEACHER

CHEATING ON TESTS

NAMES FOR SLOW, STUPID, DIM-WITTED PUPILS

DIFFERENT KINDS OF PUPILS

PUPILS WHO CONSTANTLY STUDY

TEACHERS

OTHER SCHOOL-RELATED THINGS

Rob Strybel

"Niestety śnieg już nie spadnie" - oznajmia prognoza pogody. I dobrze! Śnieg oznacza pluchę, zimno, wypadki. Pod koniec zimy z utęsknieniem wyglądamy pierwszych oznak wiosny i świętujemy jej nadejście.

Many people would agree that the best known of all spring festivals is Easter. It's the time we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, and also the time we enjoy the re-birth of the whole world. Something we associate with Easter is the Easter egg. It symbolises not only the promise of new life but also the colourful festivity of that time.

However, Easter is not the only time we celebrate the coming of spring. The second and less known in Poland is May Day. It's not so well known perhaps because it is the only ancient festival that was not adopted by the Christian Church for its own purposes.

Spring existed a long time before Christianity of course and was celebrated before the birth of Christ. As we all know food was the most important thing that people thought about long ago. At the end of winter our fore fathers didn't have much food left and sometimes people died in masses from hunger and cold. So at the end of a cold winter they celebrated the beginning of a period that meant plenty of fruit, vegetables, and mead. For that reason, spring was specially welcomed and feted.

The month that marked these spring celebrations was May. This was the time for "wearing green" because of the colour of nature budding all around. Even the name of the month - May - is connected with nature (May is named after Maria, the Goddess of fertility). May was also (and still is) the time for courting. Love is in the air in May. In Italy, boys sang serenades in the streets (making a lot of noise); in Switzerland a pine tree was placed under a girl's window (a clear sign someone loved her); in the Czech Republic boys placed May Poles in front of the houses of the girls they loved.

Yes, May Poles were associated with spring then as much as the egg is associated with Easter now. The May Pole is a high, wooden post decorated with flowers. In many cultures it symbolised the centre of the world. Around it people danced to show that they were happy and glad spring was back. But, wait a minute! We have May Poles in Poland. You don't know where? Churches are full of them on Good Friday. Those so-called "Palm-Trees" definitely look like the May Poles we find around the world.

The Church didn't like May Day but the communists did. The 1 st of May was associated for long time with worker's marches. It was in fact a worker's day all over Europe. In Poland worker's day marches were compulsory whereas in say France or Britain it was a public holiday and still is. You didn't have to go to work if you didn't want to, and there were no marches as we saw in Moscow or Warsaw. The idea of a worker's day, a celebration of work is a good one but making people march in big demonstrations when all they wanted to do was stay at home and relax was not such a good idea. Fortunately those days are gone, hopefully forever.

But let's leave politics behind. Spring is a time of renewal, a time to relax, to forget all those winter worries. It's time to fall in love, or renew those feelings of love that had lain dormant in winter. Love for someone close to you. Love to last forever. Let's hope it all comes true... for you.

VOCABULARY

Now that Poland has been given the green light to join the European Union people here are asking: what do the various institutions in Brussels, Luxemburg, and Strasbourg actually do? What is the difference between the European Council, the Council of the EU and the Council of Europe, for instance? And why are there only 12 stars on the EU flag? Be confused no longer (hopefully) with our simple guide.

The European Commission is an executive body based in Brussels. It consists of 20 Commissioners responsible for policy. Member States have their own Commissioner and the biggest five states have two each. Romano Prodi is the President of the Commission.

The EC is responsible for implementing European legislation (directives, regulations, decisions), budget and programmes adopted by Parliament and the Council. The decisions are made by majority rule, each member has one vote. The EC has regular weekly sessions on Wednesday mornings. The EC is responsible to the European Parliament.

The EC employs over 16,000 staff - that's half of those working in all of the European institutions. One fifth of the personnel translate/interpret 11 languages, but once enlargement becomes a fact the number of languages being used will total 21.

The European Parliament is the largest multinational assembly of the representatives of the 370 million EU citizens. Since 1979 representatives have been elected by direct universal suffrage for a five-year term and today total 626.

It is associated with the Council in the legislative process; it has the power of control over the Union's activities through its confirmation of the appointment of the Commission. It also shares budgetary powers with the Council in voting on the annual budget (99 billion euros last year).

Its monthly, four-day sessions take place in Strasbourg. The President of the Parliament is Pat Cox from Ireland. After joining the EU, Poland will have 50 representatives, the same amount as Spain.

The European Council is the term used to describe the regular meetings, known as European Summit Conferences, of the Heads of State or Governments of the European Union Member States. Its existence was given legal recognition by the Single European Act, while official status was conferred on it by the Treaty of the European Union. It meets at least twice a year and the President of the European Commission attends as a full member. Its objectives are to give the European Union the impetus it needs in order to develop further, and to define general policy guidelines. The European Council is presided over by a particular Head of State, who holds the chair for six months.

The Council of the European Union is the European Union's main decision-making institution. It consists of the ministers of the fifteen Member States responsible for the matters on the agenda: foreign affairs, farming, industry, transport or whatever. The meetings of foreign ministers of Member States are also called the General Secretariat. Each country in the Union in turn holds the chair for six months; the Secretary-General acts as High Representative for the common foreign and security policy. Decisions are made by qualified majority voting. Each country has a proportional number of votes. The General Assembly gathers once a month in Brussels or Luxemburg. The Council and the Parliament both make EU laws initially proposed by the European Commission.

The Court of Justice is the supreme court of the European Union. The Court members, appointed by Member States, are 15 judges and 9 advocates general. It ensures that the Treaties are respected and that the Community law is uniformly interpreted and effectively applied. It does not investigate individual citizens' complaints.

The Council of Europe is based in Strasbourg and is not part of the EU. It has 44 member states. It aims to protect democracy and human rights. Poland has been a member since 1991. Its main achievement is the European Convention of Human Rights. Any citizen of a member state can appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

The European Emblem - against a background of blue sky, twelve golden stars form a circle, representing the union of the peoples of Europe. The number of stars is fixed, twelve being the symbol of perfection and unity.

It was designed by Spanish diplomat, Madariaga y Rojo and French artist Arsène Heitz. For years there have been disputes as to what the stars represent - hours, months, Zodiac signs, Apostles, perfection? And it was shortly before his death that Heitz confessed that the number of the stars is the same as over the head of Blessed Mary and the inspiration is derived from the Bible.

The European Anthem is Ode to Joy, from Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Both the Emblem and the Anthem were taken over from the biggest and oldest European organization, the Council of Europe.

The European Court of Human Rights was set up in 1959 to enforce the decisions made by the ECHR and is part of the Council of Europe. Located in Strasbourg, there are 44 judges, one from each of the member states. Individuals can bring charges against state institutions.

Andrzej Geber

His original name was Maewyn and he was probably born in the area we now know as Wales. Thought to have brought Christianity to Ireland he was actually a pagan until he was at least 16 years old. These are just two of the contradictions to be found in the life of Ireland's patron saint. Barry Keane unravels the facts from within the myth.

The story of Saint Patrick begins on the shores of the Bristol Channel in Roman England in the 5th century AD, where he and many other unfortunates were captured by the powerful Irish King, Niall. According to the saint's own account, a great many people were captured on this raid. Patrick, now a slave in Ireland, was sold to a landowner and made to tend flocks upon the weather beaten mountains of modern day County Mayo. This was to be his fate for the following six years, until one night he heard a voice in a dream telling him to escape.

Patrick walked two hundred miles until he came to a ship, but was denied passage because he "refused to 'suck the nipples' of the captain", a rather strange pagan gesture of loyalty. We can conjecture here that the captain was looking for a permanent crew member, but somehow or other Patrick managed to persuade the captain to take him on board and return him to his home across the sea. He did not stay long, however, but went to study for the priesthood in France. When he had completed his studies, Patrick went to visit relatives back in the border area between England and Wales, and it was there, he tells us, that he had a dream. He dreamt that a letter was given to him by a messenger entitled The Voice of the Irish, asking him "to walk among them." So compelling was the dream that he determined to embark on a mission to convert the Irish to Christianity. It was a mission that would occupy the next thirty years of his life, right up until his death.

From the first, Patrick was extremely shrewd in his dealings with the structures of power that operated in Ireland at the time. The most famous instance of this is how, one night, Patrick lit a Paschal fire within sight of the hill of Slane, where King Laoghaire of Tara was presiding over a pagan feast. The king was greatly angered as the law declared that on that night no fire should be lit before the king himself had done so. The druids warned Laoghaire that if the fire was not put out that night, "it would never be extinguished." Laoghaire had Patrick and his followers fetched and brought to him. This led to a trial by fire between Patrick and the druids of the king's court, whereby both sides attempted to prove the superiority of their powers. According to legend, the cloak of the druid was placed about a follower of Patrick named Banignus and set alight. Benignus' faith kept him free from the flame even though it burned to ashes all around him. When the cloak of Benignus was placed around the druid and set alight, the druid, despite his incantations, suffered a horrible death before the eyes of his king, With the death of the druid, Patrick declared that those present had witnessed the beginning of the end of paganism in Ireland, whereby he made a deal with Laoghaire that he could preach in his territory without being killed.

Confession

In his autobiographical work, Confessio, Patrick does not tell us of the pagan belief system that he encountered during his mission, but many subsequent folk legends tell of his continuous warring with the druids of Ireland, who had up till that time served a religious and political function that may have even been more powerful than the kings themselves. Celtic druids were, for the main part, magical advisors to the kings, who acted as intermediary personages between this world and the next. The triumph of Christianity would spell the end of the recognition of the magical practices and spiritual power as practised by the druids. That they fought the ascendancy of Patrick's teachings every step of the way is borne out by the numerous stories recorded by both Patrick and his biographers of how the druids tried to murder him.

Much of the success of Patrick's mission can also be put down to his own reasonableness and sensitivity when dealing with Ireland's pagan tradition. Attaining happiness in the afterlife in Christian teaching was only achievable in Christ, which, of course, meant that Patrick would in theory have had few words of hope to offer new converts concerning the fate of their deceased pagan family members. However, there is a high probability that the saint instituted the practice of resuscitating the dead (perhaps ritually, at least), baptizing them and once again laying them to rest. One story, recounted by Patrick's biographer, Tireachan, tells how Patrick once came across a large grave. His followers marveled at the sight and declared that men of such stature no longer existed. With that, Patrick struck the grave stone with his staff and made the Sign of the Cross. Like an episode from Homer, the dead man suddenly arose and said that he had been killed by a band of warriors. Patrick baptized him and returned him to the grave once again.

Worship of the sun and solar power was common throughout the pagan world. Indeed, it formed the cult centre of Constantine's reign prior to his embracing of Christianity. For Patrick, benevolence and all things good were made possible only by the grace of God. He, therefore, made a special effort to differentiate between natural light and that of the inner light of God. The sun only rose in the sky, preached Patrick, because God willed it to be so. This position struck at the heart of Celtic pagan rites and teaching, and particularly problematic proved to be the worship of deities such as Lugh, associated with light (Latin lux - light), and celebrated at the harvest festival of Lughnasa. Over the centuries, however, pagan seasonal festivals soon came to be associated with Christian calendar events. Indeed, Lughnasa in the middle ages was associated with Patrick's victory over paganism, whereas Samhain, a festival of the dead celebrated at the beginning of Winter, became appropriated by Christianity's All Souls Day.

Patrick laid strong foundations for a process that would take centuries to complete. And but a few centuries later, Ireland would become Europe's centre of monasticism and a beacon of light in a European world that had suddenly become terribly dark. Christianity in Ireland came at a price, however, as it necessitated the death of a belief system that seems to us today to have been perfectly in tune with both nature and the otherworld. Having said that, Ireland can count itself fortunate indeed that a man such as Patrick managed to introduce a revolutionary concept to an ancient land whilst also endowing the word of Christ with a distinct Celtic character.

GLOSSARY

The Turin Shroud is a linen cloth with the image Of a man on it. This man bears the scars of crucifixion, a gore and favourite form of punishment in Roman times some 2000 years ago.

The shroud is 14 feet long by 3 feet wide. The man was about 6 feet tall, bearded and his hair is in a pony tail. In 1889, Secondo Pia, an inhabitant of Turin where the Shroud had been kept for over 500 year, took the first photographs of it. The negatives he developed clearly showed the image of the man on the cloth. This was the start of the scientific enquiry which ended in 1978 when the Shroud was examined by scientists from the USA, Italy and Switzerland. Tests were carried out using photo and electron microscopy, ultraviolet fluoresce, X-rays, spectroscopy, thermography and various other chemical, noninvasive tests.

The results seemed to prove that the body was that of a man who had been crucified as Jesus Christ had been. The image is not a painting. There are no brush strokes. The wounds and blood stains are genuine. It is the image on a cloth of a man who has had a crown of thorns placed on his head, who has been flogged by a particular whip used by the Romans, who has been crucified, the nails piercing his wrist and feet in the way the Romans carried out this punishment and who had a spear wound on the right side of his chest. Millions of people venerate the Shroud sa the image of Jesus Christ after his Crucifixion when, wrapped in the, cloth he was placed in the tomb before his Resurrection.

John Paul II when asked if the Shroud was genuine replied 'I think so'. The only problem is that the dates don't fit! In 1988 a small piece of the cloth was cut off and used for a carbon dating test. This radio carbon process gave the date of the cloth, when it was woven, as between 1260 and 1390, the era that is known as the Middle Ages. The radio carbon dating which 'provide(s) conclusive evidence that the linen from the Turin Shroud is medieval' has been disputed or completely ignored by people. How can a cloth carrying this image date from the 13 th century and the image from the I-st century. And another question which has not been fully answered is, 'How did the image of this man get onto the cloth?'

However the Shroud has been damaged by fire and water and has a coating of bacterial varnish and mould on it which may have affected the dating. But even this has been disputed. In 1998 the Shroud was exposed in Turin Cathedral and was seen by nearly 3 million people over a period of eight weeks.

The image is fading and the cloth is deteriorating to such an extent that it will not be shown to the public again for perhaps many years. The Catholic Church has decided to halt all speculation for the moment and all tests on the cloth have been stopped. The Church has a clear stand on relics. They can be venerated but NOT worshipped.

Written accounts of the cloth go back as far as the 14 th century when it was both accepted as the figure of Christ and also considered, even then, a fake. Several researchers have found references to something that might be the Shroud going back further than that but it is very difficult to prove. During the Middle Ages there were many relics. There was enough wood from the Cross, for example, to build several large sailing ships!

If the blood on the Shroud is Jesus Christ's blood then DNA testing, which has been done, will or should give us an idea of what type of blood... God has? But the tests were inconclusive because so many people have wept over the Shroud and touched it that God's blood might have been contaminated by lesser mortals.

There are two issues involved in the question of the authenticity of the Shroud. These are, Science and Religion. These two worlds are so far apart they cannot be reconciled. You either believe... Or you don't.

Glossary