In this highly technologized era, there is so little time to turn our attention to our origins, which should be passed on to future children and generations. Through our children we must convey the message that it is vital to learn more about our cultural heritage, to enrich our knowledge about the past traditions and customs and pass them on to future generations. This can be achieved through continuous and varied activities in schools.
At „Elena Doamna” Food Industry College in Galați we started a series of activities in this regard. The students, along with the teachers, selected a series of traditional culinary recipes that they cooked in the gastronomy laboratory and also made a food exhibition, obviously with the possibility to taste from the exhibits, thus encouraging the visitors to try to cook and eat more traditional Romanian food, leaving aside fast food and other snacks.
Also, for the same purpose, periodical social soires are carried out, in which the students cross sew traditional motifs, they make Christmas and Easter decorations which are donated to orphanages and old people’s homes.
Considering that these types of activites could have a greater impact if the activities had a more European dimension, our institution joined an Erasmus+ project with schools in Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece and Lithuania with the same purpose.
The main objective of the project „Knowing the past saves the future” is to enable teachers to promote teamwork, learning through discovery and cooperation between European students, to improve the general attitude towards cultural differences, traditions and customs, which would lead to hours and extracurricular activities more attractive and thus reducing the dropout rate. In addition, teachers will support students in their efforts to discover and learn about the cultures and traditions of other countries.
During the project, there are five mobilities in all five partner countries. The first meeting was already held in Romania in December 2019, during which the teachers and the host students prepared for visitors sewing, weaving, pottery, gastronomy workshops and even painted wooden spoons with traditional motifs.
We believe that participating in such a project will give teachers and students the opportunity to identify the differences or similarities in the history, geography, economy and social life of each country and to realize the importance of preserving the national cultural heritage.