Topic: The origin of Honest Trees Holy Cross or Honey Spas

Topic: The origin of Honest Trees Holy Cross or Honey Spas

Objectives:

- to extend pupils’ vocabulary on the topic;

- to improve language skills: reading, writing, and speaking;

- to activate the knowledge about the tradition of Honey Spas celebration;

- to widen pupils’ outlook;

- to stimulate thinking.

Equipment: a laptop, photos, hand-outs.

PROCEDURE

Introducing the topic and the aim

Teacher: Good morning dear students! I'm glad to see you! How are you today? Do you like holidays? What Christian holidays do you know?

1. Look at the photos and tell me, please the topic of our lesson. Yes, you are right. The topic of our lesson is “Honey Spas”.

   The Orthodox Church celebrates several significant events on this day.
The first one is the Procession of the Precious Wood of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord.

    The Procession of the Precious Wood of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord has started in Constantinople. August in Constantinople was considered one of the most difficult months: illness and disease mowed down people on the spot. So it was decided the day before to make a life-giving Cross of the Lord of the royal treasury, and enclose it to the streets and houses of citizens, praying for healing the sick. Thus, the Cross traveled up to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.

    Honey Spas (August 14) (in Ukrainian “Medoviy Spas”) On this day Ukrainians also honor Holy Maccabees (also known as Holy Maccabean Martyrs). In 166 BC Antiochus IV Epiphanes arrested a mother Solomonia and her seven sons and tried to force them to eat pork, to prove their obedience to the king. When they refused, he tortured and killed the sons. Their mother and the teacher also died in the name of God. They believed that after the death they might rise again to a better life. This day is called “Makoviy”. People bring poppy flowers to the church to get them blessed and then keep them for the kutya for Christmas and Theophany Eves. It is traditionally the time to collect the late-summer honey.

    Apple Spas or the Savior of the Apple Feast Day (sometimes the Saviour on the Hill)(August 19) is an Eastern Slavic folk holiday, falling on the Feast of the Transfiguration. It is the most important of the three Saviour (Spas) days. The holiday has a pre-Christian origin and is associated with harvesting of ripe fruits, especially apples. Then it became an Orthodox holiday. There are processions and blessings of harvests. Usually, on that day, people eat apples, apple pies, or other dishes containing apples. According to the folk traditions it is a bad luck to eat apples before the Apple Spas, and that children in heaven receive apples to eat this day as long as their living relatives have not done so before the Apple Spas.

The third Spas is a Bread or Nut Savior (Hlibnyi Spas or Horikhovyi Spas) on August 29 (or August 16, Julian Calendar). The religious history of the life of the Savior. Christ washed his face and dried it with a towel. Remain imprinted on the cloth bright face. Miraculous Image was considered miraculous. It is August 29, 944, he was transferred from Edessa to Constantinople, this number and is celebrated on the 3rd Saved. By Nut Saviour the Dormition Fast comes to an end.

By the end of the lesson you should be able :

• to recognize, understand and use the lexical material about Spas when reading and doing exercises;
• to identify main ideas and details from the texts for reading;
• to talk about Spas.

Warming up

2. Now think about our topic. What associations do you have?
3. What traditions of celebrating Honey Spas do you know? Name them.

     4.  At home you’ve learned new vocabulary, let’s revise it.

Name the pictures using the words from the box.

   _____________                           _______________                   ___________________

(Keys: The Assumption, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Honey Spas.)

New Vocabulary:

the Blessed Virgin Mary – Пречиста Діва Марія

Dormition Fast - піст

the Assumption – Успіння

The main part of the lesson

5. Read the text and fill in the gaps. Choose the one that fits the best.

      August 14th is the Feast of "The Origin Precious Wood honest and life-giving Cross of the Lord", popularly known as the Honey Spas.

      Honey Spas has been known for 1) ____________. August in Constantinople was considered one of 3) _____________: illness and disease mowed down people on the spot. So it was decided the day before (old style that was on July 31) to make a life-giving Cross of the Lord of the royal treasury, and enclose It to the streets and houses of citizens, praying for 3) ____________________. Thus, the Cross traveled up to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.

      Also on this day begins 4) ____________, erected in honor of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, which runs until August 27. It completes with the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (28 August).

A healing the sick

B more than ten centuries

C Dormition Fast

D the most difficult months

(Keys: 1B, 2D, 3A, 4C.)

6. Fill in the gaps.

Orig_n, pre_ious, Aug_st, trea_ury, pr_ying, Assum_tion.

(Keys: origin, precious, August, treasury, praying, Assumption.)

7. As you know this holiday is widely celebrated in our country. There are a lot of traditions. One of them is visiting public celebrations.

Events in Kyiv:

Honey Spas in Pirohovo Open Air Museum, on August 15-16

Traditional for this holiday Ukrainian dishes will be served: honey drinks, cakes with poppy seeds, etc. Music program: the best folk ensembles which perform traditional Ukrainian folk songs. On August 19 (on the Apple Spas) at 12:00 visitors will be able to sanctify purchased at the museum festival fruits and honey at St Nicholas Church on the territory of the Museum.

When: August 15-16, from 13:00 to 17:00
Where: Pirohovo Open Air Museum
How much: 30 hryvnia, students, pensioners, students – 15 hryvnia

We wish you an enjoyable Honey Spas celebration!

8. And what is your attitude to this holiday? Is it necessary to know about Christian holidays? Tell us about your family traditions of celebrating Honey Spas.

Summing-up

Summarising our lesson I’d like to ask you. Is there a tradition to celebrate Honey Spas in your family? Do you celebrate Christian holidays? Why is it important for you?

Use the phrases:

I am interested in…

I was impressed with…

I was amazed with…

Homework:

Find out more information and write an essay (80-100 words) about your family traditions of celebrating Honey Spas or design a leaflet about this holiday.