Even this year our dear St. Nicholas descended from heavens and kindly presented himself at our Czech school. I am not sure what is happening with the evil powers in the world but the devil seems to be meaner and meaner each year (he even brought his mini-me!). We managed to protect our kids and he did not take even one with him to hell but, let me tell you, it was some hard work. Each student had to recite 2 Czech poems and they still got a potato from the him! I am not sure how he knew this but in his “Kniha hrichu” (Book of Sins) he had a list of wrong-doings for each child which he angrily presented to the whole crowd. Thank goodness St. Nicholas stepped in with his list of good deeds (“Kniha dobrych skutku”) and – of course – a present.
Even though the devil is a trouble, it is expected from him. But who really gives us trouble is Saint Nicholas. Every year there is some issue with him; either he is sick, or simply just unavailable (just in-between you and me, it is really tough to find a Czech-speaking man with a low, good-hearted-sounding voice). This year our Saint Nicholas had an endearing American accent. You just never know in what shape and form are these saints going to appear;).
CZ: Ani tento rok nas Svaty Mikulas nezanedbal a prisel se na nasi ceskou skolu s certem a andelem podivat. Cert byl samozrejme straslivy – vylozene se ve sve certovine vyzival. Dokonce si ssebou pritahl sveho ucednika!! Mikulas se tentokrate ukazal s Americkym prizvukem, tak nevi jestli v tom nebi uz zapomina cestinu….Ale alespon uz neni nemocny, jak tomu bylo na samotny den Svateho Mikulase a proto jsme nasi besidku museli o tyden odlozit.
Deti se baly, ale jak uz to tak byva, starsi deti zacinaji cuchat certovinu (haha!!) a uz tu trojici tak ‘nezerou’. Snad je v te polo-nevinnosti muzeme jeste rok, dva udrzet!
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There is no devil. Stop talking like that at this time of the year!
I am a former teacher with many years of experience.
You scare children if you keep this negative tone.
Even as a joke, I find your email silly and tasteless.
Please be positive and supportive of children and keep the true meaning of Christmas alive!
We have enough evil in this world…the last thing humanity needs teachers like you!
You need to be more age appropriate when working with children of various ages!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
M.
Realistic or not, characters representing the evil in the world (which is something even children encounter daily – in the news, their homes, and in history and literature classes) are a part of preparation for life. What is “Little Red Riding Hood” without the “Big, Bad Wolf” character? Even if you deny the existence of a devil (which is what made the origin of Christmas necessary), it is impossible to deny the reality of our human capacity to commit acts of pure evil.
With that in view, why not celebrate folk traditions that involve good triumphing over evil? I agree, there are tasteless and frightening ways to portray devils, but there are also symbolic and educational ways to portray such villains. I would hope this would be done in a sensitive manner with young children. By the way, not much could be done costume-wise to frighten children beyond what they have already seen at Halloween these days. That doesn’t make it right to celebrate horror, but just an observation. One way children deal with their fears in life is to act out, read about, or view things that they find a bit scary. Overcoming those fears and realizing they cannot be hurt by fictitious situations or dramatizations is empowering for them.
I am sure other cultures look at American celebrations of Halloween and think it’s a form of torture for children and that they must be terrified about vampires, etc. It is easy to judge cultural traditions from the outside if you don’t know how they are being carried out exactly, or how they really work inside that culture. There are ways of Trick-or-Treating and dressing children up that are simply fun and not at all terrifying. And it’s the same with the villains of folk cultures such as demons, etc. Of course they will never be dressed as cute fuzzy bunnies, but the point isn’t to traumatize the children with the most extreme costumes possible either.