Carnival :)

Lourencinha school wish a happy and fun Carnival to Boaventura's friends school.
Read some information about Carnival, and why it's celebrate.

Traditionally, in Christianity, carnival marked the last opportunity to celebrate and to use up special foods before Lent. The Lenten period of the Church calendar, being the six weeks directly before Easter, was marked by fasting and other pious or penetential practices. Traditionally during Lent, no parties or other celebrations were held, and people refrained from eating rich foods, such as meat, dairy, fats and sugar. The forty days of Lent, recalling the biblical account of the forty days that Jesus spent in the wilderness, serve to mark an annual time of turning to God and religious discipline. In the days before Lent, all rich food and drink had to be disposed of. The consumption of this, in a giant party that involved the whole community is thought to be the origin of Carnival.
While it forms an integral part of the Christian calendar, particularly in Catholic regions, some carnival traditions may date back to pre-Christian times. The ancient Roman festivals of Saturnalia and Bacchanalia may possibly have been absorbed into the Italian Carnival. The Saturnalia, in turn, may be based on the Greek Dionysia and Oriental festivals. While medieval pageants and festivals such as Corpus Christi were church-sanctioned celebrations, carnival was also a manifestation of medieval folk culture. Many local carnival customs are based on local pre-Christian rituals, for example the elaborate rites involving masked figures in the Swabian-Alemannic carnival.
Some of the most well-known traditions, including carnival parades and masquerading, were first recorded in medieval Italy. The carnival of Venice was for a long time the most famous carnival. From Italy, carnival traditions spread to the Catholic nations of Spain, Portugal, and France. From France, they spread to the Rhineland of Germany, and to New France in North America. From Spain and Portugal, they spread with Catholic colonization to the Caribbean and Latin America.

Valentine cards to our fiends at Boaventura´s school

Vejam só que giros os nossos postais de São Valentim para os nossos amigos da escola de Boaventura.
Esperamos que eles tenham gostado.
Gostaram amiguinhos?

Valentine´s at Lourencinha´s school

St. Valentine's Day

There are several legends associated with the origins of Valaentine's Day, but it is believed that before the church associated this festivity to a saint, there were ancient pagan traditions associated with the festival of Lupercalia, held from the 13to the 15th of February. This festival was to honour Lupercus and fertility. During the celebrations women's names were drawn by men, the couples would then remain together.

The origins of this celebration associated with St. Valentine date back to the third century in ancient Rome, where Emperor Claudius the second outlawed marriage because he wanted all the single men to become warriors. Despite this law, there was a priest named Valentine who secretly married young couples. Some legends state that once the emperor discovered this crime, he sentenced Valentine to death, and it was on the 14th of February that Valentine was beheaded. Another version states that Valentine was sentenced to jail and that he fell in love with the jail keeper's daughter. Valentine sent secret mensages to his lover and signed them "From your Valentine".

There are many popular traditions associated with this day:
- Name drawing: if you are in love with someone, your love will be reciprocated if you write the person's name on a piece of paper and put it up your sleeve, keeping it there for seven days;
- If you cut an apple open on Valentine's Day, the number of seeds you see will tell you how many children you will have;
- It was believed that a woman would know what kind of man she would marry depending on the birds she saw on this day.

Friendship's day

Neste dia tão especial decidimos enviar cartas a todos os nossos amigos e amigas para podermos expressar a nossa amizade. Também os nossos professores ficaram muito contentes com as cartas que lhes enviamos. Assim a nossa caixa de correios ficou cheia!!!...