The teachers and students of Faculty of Humanities of Poltava Polytechnic held the Faculty of Humanities Halloween Fest. Thematic events were held during a week, and teachers and students discussed the history and traditions of Halloween, worked on joined thematic projects and chose the winners of a photo competition in social media, in which students of all the specializations of the faculty could take part. The traditional event was dedicated to the 90th anniversary of National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”.
“Learning languages of other countries is impossible without studying their history and festive traditions, culture and mentality. One of the most popular traditions in the USA, the UK and Ireland is the celebration of the All Hallows’ Eve – Halloween. Within the Halloween Fest, we held many interesting quizzes, discussions, scientific round tables, meetings of student clubs.
“Students of group 101HF led by Doctor of Philology, Professor of Germanic Philology and Translation Department Tetiana Kushnirova presented their creative skills with a project – an approach typical to STEM education. Native speakers, Peace Corps volunteer Larry Raffeti and St. Andrews University student Alex Purcell held an informative event in English “Productive Holidays” for Poltava school students and dedicated another meeting of our student speaking club to the discussion of Halloween,” Anna Ageicheva, PhD in Pedagogy, Dean of Faculty of Humanities of National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic” commented.
Anna Pavelieva (PhD in Philology, Associate Professor of Germanic Philology and Translation Department) and Tetiana Kushnirova (Doctor of Philology, Professor of Germanic Philology and Translation Department) also celebrated the holiday with their students online. The meeting titled “Halloween – All Saints’ Eve” was held with a festive atmosphere. A funny quiz with questions about Halloween and English idioms was held, the legends about witches, werewolves were covered, and the biography of the “scariest” director Tim Burton was discussed.
“Halloween has pagan origins, so it has special traditions of dressing up, scaring off the monsters and various interesting myths, as well as the trick-or-treating tradition that we tried to practice online. First-year students of the specialization No. 035 Philology shot interesting videos for Halloween, and you can watch it at our department’s Facebook page,” Doctor of Philology, Professor of Germanic Philology and Translation Department Tetiana Kushnirova commented.
According to Anna Pavelieva (PhD in Philology, Associate Professor of Germanic Philology and Translation Department), this holiday gives a wide space for fantasy: “As you know, there are even competitions for the best costumes and the best decorations for houses in the USA. If you follow the news, you could as incident that happened a few days ago – worried passers-by called the police a few times after seeing a house decorated as a crime scene a little bit too realistically.”
The members of the scientific club “Philology” made serious thematic research in English. The following presentations were delivered:
- Directed by Tim Burton by Iryna Lobko. The report was dedicated to the creative activity of one of the most famous directors of today, Tim Burton. The director is known for his style formed under the influence of expressionism, the gothic, and the horror movies of the 1920s. It is hard not to notice the influence of Halloween and the Latin-American Day of the Dead on his works. These holidays became the main source of inspiration for Burton. His movies have a very special atmosphere, perfect for celebrating Halloween. His most famous works include Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Frankenweenie, Edward Scissorhands, Batman, Corpse Bride, Alice in Wonderland and many others.
- Vampires by Anhelina Lazebnyk. The presentation was dedicated to the legends about vampirism. In particular, did you know that the first vampires were described in the mythology and Ancient Greece, and more than 1,000 novels about vampires were published over the last 25 years? Who were considered vampires in the Middle Ages, which features of vampires were widespread among different nations, who are Vlad Tsepesh and Elizabeth Batory, and what is special about Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga?
- Witchcraft – Myths and Misconceptions by Maryna Sliusarenko. What did Homer and Plutarch write about witches? Did you know that from 30,000 to 60,000 witches were killed from 1427 to 1436? Whom did the inquisition and the Catholic church considered to be witches and was it real to refute such accusations? And how can you avoid evil witches in our time?
- Werewolves by Oleksandr Kupriienko. Who are the werewolves and where do they come from? Why were they mentioned in medieval law codes? In which mythologies of the world are they mentioned and how to recognize them?
“Besides discussing the holiday,” Anna Pavelieva said, “we also held a gunny quiz with Tetiana Kushnirova to end the event with positive emotions.”
Last year the students and teachers prepared costumes for the holiday, brought sweets and presentations, and the university hall was decorated accordingly.
On November 2, Anna Ageicheva (PhD in Pedagogy, Dean of Faculty of Humanities) and Yuliia Hunchenko (Assistant Professor of General Linguistics and Foreign Languages Department) held a thematic round table titled “Halloween celebration traditions in English-speaking countries” with students of group 101HF. The first-year students presented informative reports in English and discussed the origin of the holiday, its symbols and peculiarities in different countries.
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National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”
