Conflicts? Speak up ... nicely !: "How many times have you been in the situation that someone is "Standing in your way"? Somebody like a professor, a parent, a brother, a sister or a friend, and that, without any thinking, you want to yell at him, get into a real fight with him or even to beat him up? It's obvious that we are talking about conflicts? But the solution is probably none of these reactions. Considering the fact that every day we get into conflict situations and that we never feel glad about it, it's very important to find a way to solve them. The most important is to see the real problem, get rid of our rage, and then face the problem. The essence is not to assault the person, who should actually become your collaborator in order to help solve the problem. It isn't an easy job, sometimes you have to show them their mistakes and make sure not to hurt their feelings, which you have to respect. It would be easier if during the conversation you state your opinions clearly and using a decent tone of voice, so that everybody can understand your point of view. In the end you should take full responsibility for your coming deeds. And that is not always very easy. " - Aleksandra ANTONIJEVIC

         

      Be free - BU, I'm young - I'm free: "There is a time in life, when you stop and think about your life so far. You just take a break and analyse what you've accomplished so far. And moments like this come at crucial times in life. Like the time when you turn 18. Then it's like a whole new world opens in front of you, new opportunities, a new kind of freedom, so many things to make and do, that you can't even begin to count. You can drink and smoke what you like, you can get married without your parents' consent, you have the right to vote, you can get your driver's license, you can get a proper job, you get out of high-school, you can get into clubs and go to parties that you've only imagined before.. o, the opportunities! On the other hand, there is this sort of melancholy that comes upon you. You feel old, maybe depressed, you feel you have to be mature, and live up to the others' expectations. You feel that you are still a kid, and all the responsibilities are too much. It feels like only yesterday you were 14 and you were all excited about getting your ID card. But the coolest part about turning 18 are the parties. Everybody says so. When everybody in your class has his or her birthday, and they throw the biggest and best party ever. And then you have a sort of mass depression, when you discover that you are no longer children in the eyes of other people (except for your parents, of course, but that doesn't give you much satisfaction, does it?). Maybe it's a sort of teen-age crisis, not very much unlike the middle-age crisis that our parents are going through. But I can only add this worn out cliché to my little article here: it's important to be young (and restless) on the inside. Do something wild, something that makes you laugh, something special, and do it everyday. Do what me and my class mates did last week: go have a fight with withered, yellow, autumn leaves in the park. Or have a food fight, dance till you drop, scream (if you wanna go faster), eat ice-cream till you burst… just do it! " - Alexandra BALAN

      Fashion and Pasion: "A couple of weeks ago, I went to have a cup of others' creativity at Casa Studentilor, where there was a presentation of summer-winter collections of hard-working, talented students from all over the country. This show, this presentation was sponsored by Jolidon underwear from Cluj and at one moment, the presenter kept saying that so that all the ones who were sitting and standing in the house knew that perfectly. There were two main guests: Catalin Botezatu and Irina Schrotter who took part in the jury…and in the end guess who won, if not Iasi? Hmm, one might say that Irina Schrotter wasn't quite Fairy Nuff, cause as a good fairy she should have left the other young participants to win the award. Catalin Botezatu didn't come up with anything because seemingly his fresh new passion is his mobile phone; I'm telling you this man just couldn't get off the phone, so nevermind if you're a celebrity, if you're asked to judge the fresh meat in this domain-fashion, if you have this mobile addiction, just please satisfy yourself by constantly holding your telephone by your ear. The show in general was acceptable, taking into consideration the place. This show could have never ever looked like a fashion presentation seen on Fashion TV. There were very many talented young people who have done extraordinary combinations, not all very original, but original enough for the beginning. The ones I liked most were the presentations of Cluj, Brasov, Craiova and Sibiu. Cluj presented lingerie exclusively for women, using black and dark red as main colors. The combinations were very elegant and de bon gout, some of them quite sophisticated, sensual, sexual. Also the way of presenting had a sexual co-notation…the models were prostitutes, well-paid prostitutes, and they were all in a room with many chairs, some of them sat on chairs, others stood by the chairs; anyway the effect was that it really looked like a room with stylish prostitutes. The mise en scene was well done, all those beautiful girls had the touch of an actress. Brasov had a collection based on grey and the theme they have developed was the statues of Brancusi. It was quite successful and it could be seen that the presentation was the outcome of hard work. Craiova were more funny and the models were seen as rock-stars, the designer wanted to show a clear return of these fresh years of the millennium to the 1970s and the 1980s, putting a great deal of kitsch in his/her work. But the presentation was fine and highly enjoyable. Sibiu was very creative; the theme was back to nature and it wasn't that much for the clothes, but for the mise en scene again, which was excellent, probably the most spectacular, with flour ,wood and candles ,these were the symbols of their little play of fashion. The hair-does were impressive, they even had incense sticks in their wiry, tangles hair. And the models with the designer have done everything by themselves. I was quite disappointed with Timisoara, who had quite a normal, more boring presentation and the models didn't wear something created, but something from their sponsors, the presented uniforms/suits: for firemen, policemen, doctors, nurses, etc. Not very original! But still one of the models won the big prize, although there were other beautiful girls, the ones from Cluj for example…but who am I to judge? What I meant through the title of this article Fashion and Passion is that I really see people who deal with fashion very passionate and I am glad that in Romania there are potential designers who can definitely compete with the foreign designers. These fashion presentations really give the young talents an opportunity to show what they can do, what their minds are capable of doing. One can't choose to work in this field (fashion) if he doesn't do it with passion, because this is art and what is art if you don't see the passion in it? " - Doris VINGE

      Children's Rights: "A family is a group of people, who offer their children protection, love, happiness... Family stands at the basis of a proper development of a child's personality. In one word, a child has a happy and carefree childhood with a family. Is it really like that? Nowadays the only responsibility of a family is to ensure the financial background for a child. In order to secure conditions for a stable financial status, parents often neglect their children. They don't spend enough time with them, but they put them in a nursery-home for children, where the nursery teachers themselves are not there for them. But, hey, they are there just to do their job, no? And while all of them do their jobs, they break children's rights on every step: right to a family, right to be accepted... Children don't know what's it like to play, enjoy playing, and freely express their thoughts. They don't even fight for their rights, because they are not aware of their rights. They focus only on computers and high technologies, while their intellectual abilities are completely neglected. They are deprived the right to be educated. The gipsies are the smallest groups of students in schools due their financial status and discrimination. They are the worst students but maybe they wouldn't be like that, if they weren't treated differently from other students, and pushed into "the corner". They don't have anyone to stimulate them to learn harder, neither at home or school. Because of that almost all the gipsies, who get the chance to be educated finish only elementary school. There is a small number of them who pursue further education and those are gipsies with a more favourable financial situation. Discrimination is present everywhere. Children are rejected just because they are in wheal-chairs, handicapped, because they have a different religion or a different skin-colour. People avoid and oppress them. Those children go to special schools where they are with people like themselves. But why are we so cruel and why do we show complete disregard for children's lives? Since the children are deprived of their rights from the beginning of their lives, they chose wrong ways. So, lets bring them back to the right way. Lets give them back their rights, children's rights, thus securing them a normal and happy childhood that every child deserves. " - Katarina VUJÈIN

      Human's rights in Garana: "When someone says Garana you usually think at snow, sky and holidays. But, for me Garana and human's rights in the same sentence make sense .Why? Because I was there in November at a training session with this theme: human's rights. What actually happened there? Well, there were a few people -the ARDOR people who organized these sessions and their guests among which I, as representative of GLAS, who worked together on this subject. The first day we had a teambuilding workshop for knowing each other better. Then in the evening we had a workshop on their project IEDDO-about the implementation of the human's rights in schools. The second day was dedicated to the IEDDO project conclusions. This project was developed during a year and this session was all about presenting their conclusions. First there were the high school pupils' conclusions: the participation at the public debates that they organized in schools was pretty low but it was a good democratic exercise by making people talking about these issues. Another special guest was Mrs. Schnell who spoke about introducing debate in schools as lessons. From Kikinda - Post pesimisti, Vlada was a special guest and he told us about the issues his country is confronting after the war. We also learned about the projects developed by CAR. What I liked the most were the workshops. We worked together one hour and we managed to put together some ideas for projects that I hope that ARDOR will put in practice. But it wasn't all about working, we also had fun: every evening we played "mafia" and "shring" and "monopoly", we sang, we played in the snow. It was really fun! What I liked the most was the fact that at first I didn't know anyone there and in the end we all became friends. I really enjoyed being in Garana. " - Cristina BERNEANU

      Interview with Diana Andona, manager of Teleuniversity Timisoara: "Reporter: Mrs. Andone, could you tell us a little history of TeleUniversity, how the idea of starting this TV channel came?
Diana Andone: In 1992-1993, a group of lecturers from the Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications, went to England with mobility grants through the Tempus Phare Program. At that time, in England, this kind of TV channel (also TV for school) already existed, and was, in fact, a multi-media qualification. When they came back, their minds were set on starting a similar TV channel and their initiative was approved by the National Council of Audio-Visual, whose members, in 1993, were mostly university lecturers and not political persons. They were delighted about the proposal, so it was a working team at national level that had the idea of giving birth to a network of TV stations called TeleUniversity, in eight university centers from Romania. There was a contest and only five towns received a license (Timisoara, Bucuresti, Craiova, Constanta and Cluj) with one condition: they would start on May 1-st 1994 on channels 31 and 34 of Tele Europa Nova and TVT 89.
RP: How many of them still exist?
DA: In the beginning, TeleUniversity was in Bucuresti, Craiova and Timisoara but we were the only ones, actually on air on May 1-st 1994. The others disappeared or changed their names and became commercial. We are financed by the University of Polytechnics, Soros or other European projects.
RP: So they are your financers?
DA: Yes. Now it's the University of Polytechnics Timisoara and it finances 100% our TV channel. The idea was that all the Universities from Timisoara should finance TU but they couldn't agree on this and they still can't. But we are open on working with everybody; we collaborate with all the Universities, including the private ones.
RP: What criteria do you use to select your staff and how do you pay them for their work?
DA: The persons that work at TU, except for the employees, which are only 4, are volunteers. That has lasted for many years and it's also the reason why TU has kept its young spirit and hasn't become commercial or forced to obey some rules. This is also hard for us because students come and go, so TU has been a school for all the media from Timisoara, in audio as in video and for those that left for Bucuresti or outside the country. Our staff is 99% students, only a few have graduated. When we need more people we put out an add at UPT and the Faculty of Journalism But usually the students are interested in working here and come on their own. We teach them as we go along, usually with a short training: a little bit of theory, a little bit of practice and they learn how to work here.
RP: What subjects do you usually follow in your programs?
D.A.: The main trait of TU comes from the fact that it is an academic and universitary channel that presents mostly aspects of academic life (educational activities, research, scientific ones, cultural and also aspects of students life - entertainment, freshmen prams etc). Our only restrictions are, through the license, and the specific of TU, the political programs or economic ones but we also have sports programs, social ones, cultural which are not only about students.
RP: What public do you address to? Whose attention are you trying to get?
D.A.: TU is mostly for academic public but not exclusively. There are many programs for high school teenagers, young people that want to go to a college and for others- we present exhibitions, books, opera. The age of our public varies from 18 to 80 years old. They are people with a high level of interest in culture, who want to be in touch with the academic environment. " - Lavinia CIOARIC

      ZONG-T...what's this: "ZONG-T is a project of the SocioCultural Association Timisiensis XXI, financed by the Ministry of Youth and Sports. It's main goal is to inform the young people of Timisoara, and not only, of various subjects, but especially of the existence and activity of the local non- governmental organizations. The first issue of the monthly "ZONG-T Informs" magazine was published in October and has managed, in a very entertaining way, to present the general NGO concept, and to motivate, in a way, the utility and diversity of these organizations. We are presented, in short, four organizations from Timisoara and their long term and present projects: Board of European Students of Technology, Fundatia Independenta pentru Tineret Timis (the Timis Independent Youth Foundation), Liga Studentilor din Facultatea de ElectroTehnica (the League of Students from the ElectroTechincal University), and last but not least, ASC Timisiensis XXI (the Sociocultural Association Timisiensis). In the last page, I read their "little guide to forming your own NGO", and the useful three steps for dissatisfied people with constructive ideas or not. ... But, as they say, let's get to more serious matters... To be honest, I enjoyed more the jokes on the last page, and the magazine's presentation on the first page. Somebody in the staff persisted with persisting persistence to let us know that the magazine is FREE and that the Association of Those with Smelly Feet already exists, to the satisfaction of those who want it and complete in the conditions. As they say: the more, the stinkier ...sorry, the merrier. One thing's for sure: the magazine is worth reading, at least for the jokes on the last page, if you are really not interested in what is culturally going on in your little town. I, for one, was delighted of the apparition of this magazine and I congratulate the staff, and the one or ones from Timisiensis XXI who came up with the idea of the project. " - Liviu VARZARU

      XMAS: "Finally the moment most of us have been waiting for since September is here: I think it's written well and big enough for everyone to see… Yes, school is over, at least for now, and we can finally sit back and relax cos we're free from the official restraints. Or at least this is what we think! But let's analyze the situation a bit: before Xmas we have to clean up the house for the holidays, or help the others with these chores, we have to spend our money on presents since it's to walk and find the right presents for everyone, get fat on Christmas day, rot in front of the TV with chocolate at hand (which is not as bad as it sounds) and still find time to prepare for the up coming routine which we call school or work. And when we think that the presents are the best thing about this holiday we immediately get a bit scared that we don't get what we've been craying for, for the past 2 weeks and again we receive the eternal and multi-colored scarf or mittens. In conclusion why do we like Xmas so much anyway, since there are so many negative aspects attached? I suppose this question could never be answered properly ...However Christmas is still my favorite holiday.:)" - Sandra VINGE

      Your first job: "Have you ever thought about working? Maybe you should ask yourself a couple of questions before looking for a job to find out what you really want. Why do you want a job? Do you need the money? Maybe you are sick to hear your parents say this each and every time you ask them for money: "-Again?! I just gave you some the other day. You won't be getting any until the…" Do you have the time? If you have classes, can you find something and not neglect your school? How much time will you have left to spend with your dear ones? So, be careful not to be behind in school and not to get remarks like this one: "You're a sleep each time I need you." They might not understand you have been working late. Check with your family and friends. They can give you suggestions or help you get a job. Of course, they will tell you not to take it too seriously because you are still young and you also need to have fun. What is it that you can do? It is very important that the job you chose values your skills and knowledge. It makes no sense to get job unloading trucks when you have very good knowledge of computers or if you like music. In that case you'd better look for a job as a DJ or as a computer club adviser. So, you'd better think about everything first: money, wins, losses, time, family, friends, skills, knowledge, and then take a newspaper, get on the Internet and see what you can come up with! About how to find a job - in our next issue.

      Yougsters Rights: "Did you know that youngsters have rights? I think the answer is "yes", like all the other people they must have rights. But what about sexuality? Sexuality is a natural and healthy thing of human existence. It starts around teenage period and accompanies you for the rest of your life. In conclusion it's very important that the start of your sexual life to be normal, considering the young people's rights:

The right to get sexual education as a permanent process. " - Nemanija GRBIC

      Devil's Zone: "I'm a second year student at the famous Fine Art Faculty of Timiºoara. The Fine Art Faculty is so very beautiful, so very roomy, it is a very big ivory. It is impossible for you not to get in love with it at the first sight, it is a masterpiece which surpasses every imagination. In August a colleague called me up to ask me if I want to participate at an international painting camp. It was the last chance, so I was glad that I was the chosen one. This action was suppose to take place in Iaºi, a beautiful town-really now! with a lot of places and things to see. Prepared, in the North Station of Timiºoara for the departure to Iaºi, I found out that the international camp is actually a national camp. "So what? Big deal! I'm not going to meet babes from other countries anymore," I said to myself as stupid as I am. Finally, we arrive in Iaºi, where we find out that the ticket back to Timiºoara is no longer paid for, as we were promised. Arrived here, I see an ordinary drunkard, with a beggar aspect, a garbage, approaching towards us. Nothing special, but this creature holds out his hand to our group boss who knew the contact man. So you can see, this presentable gentleman, was the devil himself-he was the organizer. As every devil, he invited us to his home Bucium, where the camp was suppose to take place. I don't wish to be very precise in this person's description, because I don't want you to be scared for the rest of your life. My stomach was twisting as if it was at the Gymnastics Olympics. Arrived in Bucium, the organizer fights badly with the two taxi-drivers that brought us there. I am so very sorry, I don't have enough space to tell you with luxury of details, all the jumble I've been through. We intended to accommodate ourselves. We waited with the hands behind our backs for those two young nincompoops, to open the doors to some little chalets, while we were watching desperately. After that they let us to go into those one square meter cans. The beds were so little, that I was sleeping in portions: today my chest, tomorrow my feet... At least my head was kept on a hanger because of the rats. The food was horrible. It was reminding you how to throw up. You had to fight pretty bad for a glass of water. Finally, when I got a bottle of water, I figured it out that to win means to lose, because the water was bad, dirty, disgusting. Without exagerating, I tell you that I got some red anomalies all over my body. The beautiful but stupid assistants were calling it alimentary intoxication (they were always giving up the salami for us). I don't think those people ever heard of a mirror. You could see that on their faces; therefore when I was forced to shave myself, like every man does, I performed this luxury in Iasi's Museum. With this occasion I want to apollogise to the citizens and the mayor, also the humanity, for this unqualified gesture (in my place you would do the same). At the entrance of the "restaurant", a pair of old shoes were hanging on a stick belonging to you know who. That room looked like a stable for freaks. You would have to walk very carefully, with technique, tactics and dexterity. You could step into the "luck", if you know what I mean. The organizer, always drunk was asking the participants for a lousy fifty to pay out his debts. At the table the devil invited some fiddlers which, of course couldn't be paid with cash; so, he offered them drinks, but they (normal people) refused and they got into a fight. The necessary painting was also bought with drinks. As I arrived there I was welcomed by handicapped children (in an international camp). They were also accommodated in this camp. I spent time with these kids and realized later how stupid I was when I tried to reject them at first, when the real handicapped was the organizer. I learned to communicate with them, understand them and see them as the beautiful people they really are. Anyway, it was a better experience than I described it. There are two conclusions: everything about art and artists must be without any substance and vainly, and, in Romania, the image of an artist is that of a nut, a smoker, a piece of dirt, an illiterate, a long-bearded who knows to grunt through painting, sculpture… " - Cristian PATEAN

      A pet - are you ready for one?: "I've always wanted a pet. When I was bored or angry on somebody I needed something to play with or to explain my thoughts and feelings on. First, I tried this with a teddy- bear, then I changed it for a lion (of course a toy) and I realized it wasn't any better. About 4 years ago my elder sister got a rabbit as a present from a friend. It was so small that you couldn't hold it in your hands because it slipped out. As time passed on it grew bigger and bigger and it was turning into a real rabbit in flash and blood. I got used to it being playful and whenever I was in the mood for playing it was at my will. After a while my sister gave it to another friend and my living toy was leaving from my life for good. It was then that I realized that one isn't appreciating what he has until he loses it. I started missing him a lot and I felt a whole in my heart that could never be filled again. After a year or so we got a tiny 3 week old kitten. At first he was very scared, but after a while he got used to us. Now I learned that it's quite a responsibility to keep a pet, because if you want to play and have fun with a cat, for instance, you'll have to take responsibility and good care of it. Here comes in the power of routine as well. You get used to feeding him, taking care of him, playing with him. You'll start missing him only when he will die (God forbid!) or he will get lost. This is the main message of this article: the assuming of responsibility and that there are things in life that you have to give up if you want to gain something. If you want to play, you have to work as well. If you want to receive something, you have to give something away. You put your trust in it and if it fails to your expectations and desires than you end up a little (or more) disappointed. " - Liviu VARZARU

      Dilema: Should we or should we not introduce relegion: "After democratic changes in Serbia the chance to introduce religious education appeared, raising various questions. According to the Helsinki human rights watch introduction of religious educations can't be achieved in accordance with present constitution of FRY. Local representatives of Democratic Party of Serbia organized debates regarding this matter. Opinions on the subject of religious education were presented by psychologist Dr Djordje Popovic, teacher Ilinka Djuran and church representative Vladislav Vulovic. After the debate, the Youth organization of the Democratic Party of Serbia - published an announcement with the following conclusions:

It should include all religions practiced in the area Local representatives of Democratic Party of Serbia think that introduction of religious education should bring corrections and changes in the school curriculum. First step should be taken by disposing subjects of biology, Darwin's theory of evolution However, there are certain questions regarding children's rights. One of them relates to the1946 Constitution of FRY by which church and state are two separate institutions. Changes of the 1946 Constitution should regulate relation between church and state. At the moment there are positive signals from the government of FRY regarding this matter International human right treaties (which include Universal Human Rights Declaration, Children's Right Convention, European Human Rights Convention, International Convention for Civil and Human Right) are preconditions for FRY to become a member of the Council of Europe. By ratifying all this treaties FRY is obliging itself to respect all human and civil rights: freedom of religion, right to privacy related to ones religious believes...Serbian Orthodox Church in its New Years publication showed total disregard for human rights mentioned above. How about other countries? In the USA there is a strong separation between church and state. For that reason religious education hasn't been taught in state schools. On the other hand in Scandinavian countries religious education is a compulsory subject in state schools. The Children's Right Conventions ratified by FRY guaranties freedom of religion for every child. International law can't answer the question regarding future religious believes of a child in a case in which parents belonging to two different religious groups can't agree .For example, Islamic religion says that fathers religious believes should be automatically adopted by his children. Constitutions of some Western countries (Austria, Norway, Finland) guaranties the right for religious self-determination for the children of a certain age group (14, 15, 16,...) Vatican and Poland have explicit reservations regarding chapter 14 of Children Human Rights Convention. According to public opinion, in the majority of the Western countries, children should not be able to religiously determinate themselves until the age of 18. UN Human rights watch in its chapter regarding the religious rights introduced following acts: "Religious education shouldn't be forced upon, nor should it be denied "In the societies were majority of population practices one religion the rights of minority and their religious believes should be equally respected. Exceptionally worrying is a statement of the deputy minister for religions given in his last interview to local television station on Sunday, June 10. 2001. According to Mr Stijepic, the new law should deal with the ways in which the church is financed and organized. Few acts of that new law will be related to religious education and the way in which to introduce religion into schools. Religious education would be compulsory from the first to the fifth grade of the primary school. Parents will have an authority to choose the means by which the religious education would be presented to their child. Either through classic religious education or through some form of ethics or history of religion. Asked to give his comment on some expert opinions by which introduction of religious education is contrary to the constitution of FRY, Mr Stjepic reacted by accusing Slobodan Milosevic of ignoring religious rights in the same way as Tito's regime did. According to Mr Stjepic, FRY is the only European country without any acts of law regulating relation between church and state. In order to become the member of EU, Yugoslavia should accept European norms. At this time the status of the religious education is still uncertain due to the delay of the reforms in the whole school system Beside all the arguments a key question remains unsolved. Would the introduction of religious education present a forceful act considering the fact that for the last 54 years FRY has been functioning as a country in which church and state are totally separated? What do we regard as an absolute religious majority? According to the data of Human Rights Committee 65% of Serbian population never expressed their religious believes. How can we avoid a religious discriminations in a such multinational and multi-religious society? In order to avoid the confrontation of the various religious groups, religious education should be available to everyone concerned, an act which would reduce school budget and education funds. As usual, school children have been ignored and their opinion unheard. No opinion poll has been done in order to solve this dilemma. There is a total disregard for the interests of all the pupils in FRY aged between 7 and 19. Our only hope is for a new law which will be publicly discussed " - Dijana SUBOTIÈKI

      Cats...all over: "On the 1st and 2nd of December, the Romanian Feline federation organised the second edition of the feline exhibition, hosted by Casa Tineretului. Aproximately 50 felines participated, coming from the western side of Romania, but also from Yugoslavia, Hungary, Russia and The Republic of Moldavia. The ambience was very pleasant, the walls had been decorated with drawings representing the children's own interpretation of cats. Breeds like Persian, Siamese and The Russian Blue could be admired , including the national Champion, a Persian cat coming from Timisoara. For the cat lovers, the event was a real delight: the cats looked impeccable, and still, they were being constantly brushed and perfumed by their owners. Each cat was exposed in a glass case and was surrounded by its favourite plaything, though most of them were resting. The visitors were also offered the chance to vote for their favourite participant, and in the end diplomas were awarded. Some kittens were for sale, but the prices started from 50 $ each.Overall, more events of this kind should be encouraged to take place in Timisoara, in order for the citizens to get in touch with the animal world,.since the city does not even have a proper Zoo" - Dana HUIBAN

      Keeping up with tradition: "The Romanian people is extremely rich from a spiritual point of view. They stand out as religious people, and having a solid culture and tradition. The Xmas holidays are important for all the ones who believe in God, even if they don't necessarily believe in Christ. Only today, the only parts in which the tradition is still kept properly are the villages; people from rural regions celebrate these holydays as they used to be celebrated everywhere in the past. One of the factors which influenced this loss of tradition is probably communism which led an antireligious propaganda. Therefore, from the communist perspective, if you don't have any strong beliefs concerning God, you are not able to maintain any of the Christmas traditions. The mystery and beauty of the day in which Christ was born were literally crushed by the communist ideals and mentality. The notion of "Santa Clause" was out of use, and it was extremely difficult to get a Xmas tree before Xmas. These only appeared in large amounts after the holiday, right before New Year's Eve. Xmas carols were also excluded from "society", and thus everything that intensified the faith of the people in a divine force had to be butchered and forgotten about. In the rural regions, the Xmas traditions are better kept and have been in the past 50 years. The people who live in villages still practice some customs such as "The Goat", or they go and sing Xmas carols, only to feel good. They are kindly rewarded with home made sponge cakes, nuts, wine and a lot of good will and hospitality. As oposed to this joly atmosphere, life in the city is not as fond of these traditions. If you want to hear Xmas carols you have to go and see special concerts on this theme, which makes all the magic go away. In my opinion, in the communism era the holiday atmosphere was damaged. Not only that the representatives of the socialist party were oppressing tradition, they were also in the way of any progress made in this respect. Even now, after 12 years from the revolution you can still see surprise on the faces of those who were already adults in '89 when they see the city adorned with all the Xmas garments. I believe that there is a sort of ambiguity concerning young people today from the point of view of holiday and tradition. The younger generation today are only interested in adopting a western way of celebrating Christmas, and thus the whole attitude becomes impersonal. The cultural fortune possessed by the Romanian people in this domain is neglected whereas the western habits are praised to the extreme. The basis of our "new (western) traditions" is completely wrong, since they these traditions are not linked to our religion, our ancestors, our souls. The dangerous tendency of our becoming a lousy copy of the western world becomes more and more obvious. It is unbelievable and impossible to forget your cultural background in such a short time and to try to mould on one which is not ours. This is why, I believe, we should try to pay attention to our own tradition and to focus on the rural regions where you can still take a glance at what we can definitely call folk Christmas customs." - Carmen NOVAC

      Memories of a real Christmas: "The people who live in villages still practice some customs such as "The Goat", or they go and sing Xmas carols, only to feel good. They are kindly rewarded with home made sponge cakes, nuts, wine and a lot of good will and hospitality. As oposed to this joly atmosphere, life in the city is not as fond of these traditions. If you want to hear Xmas carols you have to go and see special concerts on this theme, which makes all the magic go away. In my opinion, in the communism era the holiday atmosphere was damaged. Not only that the representatives of the socialist party were oppressing tradition, they were also in the way of any progress made in this respect. Even now, after 12 years from the revolution you can still see surprise on the faces of those who were already adults in '89 when they see the city adorned with all the Xmas garments. I believe that there is a sort of ambiguity concerning young people today from the point of view of holiday and tradition. The younger generation today are only interested in adopting a western way of celebrating Christmas, and thus the whole attitude becomes impersonal. The cultural fortune possessed by the Romanian people in this domain is neglected whereas the western habits are praised to the extreme. The basis of our "new (western) traditions" is completely wrong, since they these traditions are not linked to our religion, our ancestors, our souls. The dangerous tendency of our becoming a lousy copy of the western world becomes more and more obvious. It is unbelievable and impossible to forget your cultural background in such a short time and to try to mould on one which is not ours. This is why, I believe, we should try to pay attention to our own tradition and to focus on the rural regions where you can still take a glance at what we can definitely call "folk Christmas customs." - Oana Elena BOZ

      Chrismas Tradition: "Few know that Christmas tradition are from quite recently. So, the beloved Santa Clause is actually Saint Nicholas, whos celebration was banned during the Reform. Santa Clause's image of today-a joly old man, dressed in red, with a big black belt around him (does he really know martial arts, like in one of the commercials?!)-was actually created by an artist for a certain beverage company commercial (you know which one). Other artists took care of the rest of the legend: he lives at the North Pole, is helped by elves, his slay is carried by raindeers and he comes to children houses through the chimney. The Christmas day-his only working day (will he ever retire?!)-has been celebrated for a long time, but with other significance. It was only later, in the XIX century that it has been celebrated as the birth of Christ. The Christmas tree is an older tradition than the others. At the beginning of the millenium the tree was put with its peak down for unknown reasons. There are different opinions to where the Christmas tree was first seen: Lituania, France or Germany. At first people put cakes, apples and sweets on it. Later on there were candles and now we can see all kinds of globes, lights and glamorous stuff P.S. This article is forbidden for those who still believe in Santa Clause! " - Ovidiu MINCEA

      Did you know that: "Hungarians start Christmas preparations in the first Sunday of December. It's the moment to light the first candle of the "advent", that symbolizes the beginning of the Christmas fast. Each following Sunday they light another candle, so that on Christmas Eve all the four candles are lightened;