Season’s Greetings
The Multicultural Aged Care Board and Staff would like to wish you PEACE, JOY and PROSPERITY for this coming festive season and the New Year.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Christmas is celebrated in a large number of communities. Learn how to say Merry Christmas in several different languages with sound files from Omniglot.com.
Silent Night
Silent Night was originally written in Austria 1816 but wasn’t translated into English until 1859. Today it has been translated into over 44 different languages.
Download a copy of the lyrics in 7 different languages.
Gingerbread Biscuits
Gingerbread is a traditional favourite for many during the Christmas season. In Dutch tradition the biscuits may be pressed into special designs, in German tradition the biscuits are rolled and cut into shapes, then decorated with nuts before baking. These may be then hung on the Christmas tree. Visit Christmas-Cookies.com for a comprehensive list of Christmas biscuits. Download a factsheet on how to make your own gingerbread biscuits to hang on the tree.
It’s not just Christmas
Whilst Christmas Day is celebrated by most Australians in very many different forms, other days have more significance in different communities. For example, Christmas Eve is more significant for the Polish community with a special meal and the midnight vigil being significant. The Italians may also celebrate the Christmas Eve Vigil with presents being shared on January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany otherwise known as La Befana.
Other significant events are
December 31 – Hogmanay – Scotland
– New Year’s Eve
January 6 – Epiphany
January 7 – Orthodox Christmas
January 13 – Orthodox New Year’s Eve
January 26 – Australia Day
January 31 – Chinese New Year
– Tet, Vietnamese New Year
2014 Calendars
There are many calendars to choose from for 2014. The best two are those produced by Multicultural SA and the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.
Multicultural SA has the South Australian Multicultural Calendar which has both a wall calendar (which can be ordered) and an electronic calendar with listings of events and festivals happening here in South Australia.
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection has a very extensive online calendar that can be filtered by country, religion and date.
Holiday Closings
The MAC office will be closed from 16 December 2013 and will reopen on 13 January 2014.
The MAC Library will also be closed from 13 December 2013 and will reopen on 20 January 2014. If you are concerned about some items you have on loan or would like to organise borrowing some resources before the Library closes, please call the MAC office on 8241 9900.