European myths and legends

We noticed that fewer and fewer of our pupils know about our regional history, traditions and myths. That is the reason for our decision to deal with the topic of our project. We want to counteract this process by collecting local myths and legends, publishing a European myth book with attractive illustrations and background information. During each meeting, the pupils present their partners one of their myths in its regional context, e.g. by a scenic interpretation. Moreover, they illustrate and fix the myths in a written form in German and English. During the different project meetings, the knowledge about and understanding of the myths will be checked by different kinds of small riddles and retellings. By doing so the students internalize their own tradition but also those of the partner countries. Another aim is to inform all participating students about our own culture by different myths and to achieve mutual understanding and tolerance. Most of the 20 participating students of each school belong to grades 9-12 and are interested in history and language. They want to improve or extend their foreign language skills and are open to new cultures and experiences. We expect the participants to get a deeper knowledge of the cultures and traditions of the participating countries. For this purpose, we collect the myths in a myths book, which will be published, so that this material can be used in class and in other parts of public life, for example tourism, local and regional history and culture clubs, museums and libraries.