Thursday, March 28, 2024
Youth Central Logo

YOUTH ARE AWESOME

Youth Are Awesome, commonly referred to as YAA, is a blog written by youth for youth. YAA provides the youth of Calgary a place to amplify their voices and perspectives on what is happening around them. Youth Are Awesome is a program of Youth Central.

Any views or opinions expressed on this blog belong solely to the author and do not represent those of people or organizations that the blog may be associated with, unless explicitly stated. All content is for informational purposes only.

HomeUncategorizedSick of winter yet?

Sick of winter yet?

Another drop in temperature this week again showed that winter isn’t over yet in Calgary.

The past week had summery temperatures, but now we have to put on those hats and mittens that we had almost forgotten about. But despite of dwelling on how unpleasant winter is, let’s scoot forward and see how some countries say goodbye to winter, and hello to spring.

Growing up, I remember the yearly ceremonies for “Wintervertreibung” that the public could attend. Wintervertreibung stands for “chasing away winter,” and many different communities have their own ways of celebrating it, yet always with the same core traditions.

I remember one year specifically:

That year we decided to go see the Wintervertreibung outside a town that held it in the Palatinate forest. The first step is a parade, where all attendees are following a cart that carries a snowman made out of hay. It normally is still cold at the time of the parade, since it is in the morning, that the parade normally doesn’t take that long.

Upon return, the attendees will be able to warm up at a wonderful bonfire, sipping some hot chocolate and eating special pastries.

Now, how does that chase away winter?

Well, remember the snowman made out of hay? Well, at the end, the snowman is burned to symbolically chase away winter, and celebrate the arrival of (hopefully!) spring.

 

Winter is a time a lot of people really dislike, but it also allows for special celebrations as Wintervertreibung, which actually makes winter my favourite season!

Magdalena Mueller
Magdalena Muellerhttps://www.youthareawesome.com/author/magdalena
Sometimes we can find our personalities in others, if we just chose to search for ourselves: “In the book Soldiers on the Home Front, I was greatly struck by the fact that in childbirth alone, women commonly suffer more pain, illness and misery than any war hero ever does. An what's her reward for enduring all that pain? She gets pushed aside when she's disfigured by birth, her children soon leave, hear beauty is gone. Women, who struggle and suffer pain to ensure the continuation of the human race, make much tougher and more courageous soldiers than all those big-mouthed freedom-fighting heroes put together.” ― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl “I'd rather be thought of as smart, capable, strong, and compassionate than beautiful. Those things all persist long after beauty fades.” ― Cassandra Duffy “The strength of a woman is not measured by the impact that all her hardships in life have had on her; but the strength of a woman is measured by the extent of her refusal to allow those hardships to dictate her and who she becomes.” ― C. JoyBell C.
RELATED ARTICLES

Most Popular