Today I happened to read an article about reforming the Berlin school system, and I use the term “school” intentionally — rather than “education” system; we’re talking about schools here (and Germany has compulsory school attendance laws rather than compulsory education). The article was entitled “Kulturkampf ums Gymnasium” — roughly “culture war over the Gymnasium.” Of course, as most of my readers know, a Gymnasium in Germany is a public academic secondary school leading to university study. It has nothing to do with an athletic gymnasium (Turnhalle), other than sharing a Greek root word. (English took the sports element, while German took the academic side from Greek gymnasion, a place for training both the mind and body.) READ MORE »
Posts in category German vocabulary
November: The mourning month
All Souls Day and Mainz’s Newweling candles
Today, November 2, is All Souls Day (Allerseelen). In Germany, most of Europe, and all over the world where the western Christian church is dominant, this is a day devoted to remembering and praying for the “faithful departed.” Indeed, the Latin (Roman Catholic) name for this day is In Commemoratione Omnium Fidelium Defunctorum (“commemoration of all the faithful departed”).
As history (and two world wars) would have it, November in the western world has become a month for commemorating the dead — whether fallen in war or otherwise. Since the 14th century, the Roman Catholic church has dedicated the month of November to the dead, and in the United States, November 11 is Veterans Day, a time to remember and honor those who fought and died, originally in the Great War ended by the armistice that took effect at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, on November 11, 1918. (In fact, the date was known as Armistice Day prior to World War II.) This day, known as Remembrance Day or Poppy Day in some other Allied nations, is also a holiday in France and Belgium. READ MORE »
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