{"id":2943,"date":"2011-11-22T15:23:12","date_gmt":"2011-11-22T15:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=2943"},"modified":"2017-11-14T14:14:25","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T14:14:25","slug":"tradition-how-germans-celebrate-a-child%e2%80%99s-first-day-at-school-einschulung","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/tradition-how-germans-celebrate-a-child%e2%80%99s-first-day-at-school-einschulung\/","title":{"rendered":"Tradition: How Germans celebrate a child\u2019s first day at school – Einschulung"},"content":{"rendered":"

A friend of mine, who studies French, is currently in France, where she teaches French students German. In one of her first lessons she wanted to find out to what extend the students were able to communicate in German, so she showed them a picture and asked them to describe what they could see. Although the students were able to describe the picture they were not able to make out and label a Schult\u00fcte<\/em><\/strong> (paper cone). Eventually, it turned out that there is not a similar festive event for Schulanf\u00e4nger<\/em><\/strong> (school starters) in France as it is in Germany. This made me ponder on whether other countries do also not celebrate this day in the way we Germans do. Thus, I decided to share this German tradition with you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When children in Germany enter school they are not merely send to the school building on their very first day and immediately start to have lessons. Zuallererst <\/em><\/strong>(in the first instance), German ABC-Sch\u00fctzen<\/em><\/strong> (abecedarians) celebrate a huge party on the weekend before another school year officially starts. Dazu <\/em><\/strong>(for that to happen), the whole family and friends of the family are invited.<\/p>\n

The Einschulung<\/em><\/strong> (enrollment event) basically consists of two parts. In the morning, the actual Einschulungszeremonie<\/em><\/strong> (enrollment ceremony) takes place. The child and her\/his parents as well as close family members, usually siblings and grandparents, accompany the child to school where they are received by the Schuldirektor<\/em><\/strong> (principal) and den zuk\u00fcnftigen Klassenlehrern<\/em><\/strong> (the prospective class teachers).<\/p>\n

It is a common practice that the principal gives eine Begr\u00fc\u00dfungsrede<\/em><\/strong> (a welcome address) in the Aula<\/em><\/strong> (assembly hall) and that older students perform some songs and poems. According to Wikipedia, these older students are usually Drittkl\u00e4ssler<\/em><\/strong> (third-grade students) and Viertkl\u00e4ssler<\/em><\/strong> (fourth-grade students). After the ceremony, the parents and family congratulate the child on their enrollment and the children are given the Schult\u00fcte<\/em><\/strong> (lit. school cone\/bag), which is also called Zuckert\u00fcte<\/em><\/strong> (lit. sugar cone\/bag). The cone is basically filled with sweets. Therefore, the alternative name \u2018sugar cone\u2019. But it can also contain jeglichen<\/em><\/strong> Schulbedarf<\/em><\/strong> (any school supplies), for example, F\u00fcller<\/em><\/strong> (fountain pens), Lineale<\/em><\/strong> (rulers), and Radiergummis<\/em><\/strong> (erasers), as well as Spielzeug<\/em><\/strong> (toys). Unfortunately, I cannot recall what I had found in my Schult\u00fcte<\/em>, since this is much too long ago.<\/p>\n

After that, the ceremony continues in einem kleinen Kreis<\/em><\/strong> (a small circle). The children follow their class teachers to their classroom where they may also get a small Willkommensgeschenk<\/em><\/strong> (welcome gift) and are handed out the Stundenplan<\/em><\/strong> (class schedule). Before the children can finally head back home they need to pose for a photograph in front of the black board and another one in front of the school with their Schult\u00fcten<\/em> in hand.<\/p>\n

When this roller-coaster ceremony is over the child may eventually celebrate \u2018school entrance\u2019 im Kreise der Familie<\/em><\/strong> (in the family circle). How people celebrate thereafter can vary. Some families go out eating in Restaurants and others are taking coffee at home.<\/p>\n

Although I can hardly remember my own Einschulung<\/em> I can recall that I liked it to be given the Schult\u00fcte<\/em> and I was indeed convinced that I would get a Zuckert\u00fcte<\/em> at the beginning of every school year. So, I almost burst with anticipation during my first summer vacation but eventually, I had to realize that this is not so, and I was very, very sad that I had not gotten one when my second year in school began.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Are there any special customs in your country that are similar to that?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Vocabulary:<\/em><\/p>\n

die Schult\u00fcte \u2013 paper cone<\/em><\/p>\n

der Schulanf\u00e4nger (m) \/ die Schulanf\u00e4ngerin (f) \u2013 school starter<\/em><\/p>\n

die Schulzeit \u2013 school time<\/em><\/p>\n

zuallererst \u2013 in the first instance<\/em><\/p>\n

der ABC-Sch\u00fctze (m) \/ die ABC-Sch\u00fctzin (f) \u2013 abecedarian<\/em><\/p>\n

Dazu\u2026 \u2013 \u00a0for that to happen<\/em><\/p>\n

die Einschulung \u2013 enrollment<\/em><\/p>\n

die Einschulungszeremonie \u2013 enrollment ceremony<\/em><\/p>\n

der Schuldirektor (m) \/ die Schuldirektorin (f)\u2013 principal<\/em><\/p>\n

der Klassenlehrer (m) \/ die Klassenlehrerin (f) \u2013 class teacher<\/em><\/p>\n

die Begr\u00fc\u00dfungsrede \u2013 welcome address<\/em><\/p>\n

die Aula \u2013 assembly hall<\/em><\/p>\n

der Drittkl\u00e4ssler (m) \/ die Drittkl\u00e4sslerin (f) \u2013 third-grade student<\/em><\/p>\n

der Viertkl\u00e4ssler (m) \/ die Viertkl\u00e4sslerin (f) \u2013 fourth-grade student<\/em><\/p>\n

die Schult\u00fcte \/ die Zuckert\u00fcte \u2013 paper cone<\/em><\/p>\n

der Schulbedarf \u2013 school supplies (uncountable noun in German, thus, only singular)<\/em><\/p>\n

der F\u00fcller \u2013 fountain pen<\/em><\/p>\n

das Lineal \u2013 ruler<\/em><\/p>\n

der Radiergummi \u2013 eraser<\/em><\/p>\n

das Spielzeug \u2013 toy<\/em><\/p>\n

im kleinen Kreis \u2013 in a small circle<\/em><\/p>\n

das Willkommensgeschenk \u2013 welcome gift<\/em><\/p>\n

der Stundenplan \u2013 class schedule<\/em><\/p>\n

im Kreise der Familie \u2013 in family circle<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

A friend of mine, who studies French, is currently in France, where she teaches French students German. In one of her first lessons she wanted to find out to what extend the students were able to communicate in German, so she showed them a picture and asked them to describe what they could see. Although…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":2946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,913],"tags":[62,95165,95166,95167,95168],"class_list":["post-2943","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-traditions","tag-education","tag-einschulung","tag-first-day-at-school","tag-paper-cone","tag-schultute"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2943"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8939,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2943\/revisions\/8939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}