Who Are Our Partners in Transylvania?

 

Goal: To learn more about the history, customs, beliefs and practices of Transylvanian Unitarians.

 

Materials (downloading instructions):

  1. The Partnership Suitcase filled with materials for the lesson.
  2. Game boards and card sets: one for every 4-6 children you expect to attend the lesson.

Game Board PDF file 188KB

Game Flaps PDF file 3.4MB

Beliefs & Practices and Customs Cards Graphics PDF file 1.2MB

Beliefs & Practices Cards MS Word file 51KB PDF file 98KB

Customs Cards MS Word file 51KB PDF file 93KB

  1. Playing pieces from commercial game boards: one for each player. (Monopoly is good since there so many different pieces.)
  2. Dice: 1 die for each game board.
  3. Map of the world. Pushpins and string or yarn.
  4. Homemade passports for each participant (made in Lesson #1)
  5. Page of stickers to put in passports (MS Word file 549KB PDF file 182KB). Date stamp (optional)
  6. Copies of the founder story (MS Word file 33KB PDF file 70KB) and the guided meditation (MS Word file 33KB PDF file 65KB) to read aloud.
  7. Snack from Transylvania (MS Word 28KB PDF file 55KB)
  8. Black minister’s or academic robe for story telling (optional)
  9. Copies of “Under One Sky” (MS Word file 30KB PDF file 60KB).


As an alternative to downloading all these materials individually, you can save time by downloading a compressed file containing all materials. To do this, your computer must be capable of handling files compressed using WinZip or Stuffit. You have the choice of:

 

Introduction: (15 minutes)

"This morning we are going to take a trip to visit Unitarians in Romania and Hungary. Transylvania, the homeland of these Unitarians, used to be its own country, then it was part of Hungary and now it is part of Romania. We’ll learn more about this later but for now, let’s find Romania and Hungary on our world map. Can you find the Carpathian Mountains? This is the region of Transylvania. Right now in Transylvania it is _____ o'clock on _____day.” [Look this up on the internet, or have a child look it up before this class and report what they found out.] 

 

[Tie one end of a piece of string or yarn to the pushpin marking Transylvania and the other end to one marking your town.]

 

“Now that we know where we are going, we will all need passports.”  [Take the passports out of the Partnership Suitcase, and show them the Transylvania “sticker” that they will receive when they return from their trip.  Ask: “What should be done with the passports?” Ans: Keep in a clean pocket or give to you --their trip leader--until they're ready to return.]

 

“We decided to visit a public school in Transylvania, and this morning the Unitarian minister from the area is giving his weekly religious education class for all the Unitarian children. He is teaching the class about the first Unitarians in Transylvania: Francis David and King John Sigismund. After we hear a story about these two important figures in Transylvanian history, we’ll play a board game that tells us more and helps us think about how Transylvanian and North American Unitarian Universalists are alike and how we are different.”

 

“In Transylvania the children sometimes have snacks--just like we do. The drink would be fizzy water with a sweet fruit syrup added,.  [Pass out the snacks—take Panko or Sos Rud –salty rods—out of the suitcase]  We’ll eat our Transylvanian snack while we hear the story that begins our religious education class in Transylvania.”

 

Story:Take out of the suitcase and read aloud. (5 minutes)

 

Game: (take out of suitcase) Partners! in Transylvania (20-30 minutes)

Set up:

  1. Place the game boards on tables or the floor. Divide the participants into groups of 4-6 players. If you have a wide age range of participants, be sure to play the game with mixed ages so the older ones can help the younger.
  2. Note: the Customs cards and Beliefs and Pracitices cards are numbered and should be stacked in order in their own pile, face-down with the #1 card on top.

Object of the Game: To move along the path from Start to Finish.

Rules:

  1. Establish who will start by a roll of the die—high number goes first. Moving in clockwise direction, each player rolls the die and moves ahead the number of spaces shown on the die.
  2. Players lift the flap of the square they land on and read the words under it. Follow directions, ie: Move ahead, move back, pick a Customs Card, or pick a Beliefs and Practices Card. Read or answer the question on the card.
  3. The next player goes after all cards are read and questions answered.


Stop the game 20 minutes before the end of the session.

 

Meditation (10 minutes) 

We’re going to leave Transylvania after hearing a story about a girl named Bettje and a very special day in her village.

 

Make yourself comfortable on the floor. Spread out so you can lie down. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Feel your body relax into the floor. Take another deep breath. As I read, imagine that you are in Bettje’s village.”

 

Conclusion (10 minutes)

Hand out passports and pass out stickers. “This is the symbol of Transylvanian Unitarians. In the Bible, Jesus says: “I am sending you out, like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and gentle as doves.” Transylvanian Unitarians believe their survival comes from having followed this advice. So you see a serpent (a symbol of wisdom) and dove (a symbol of peace). The crown on the top represents the crown of King John Sigismund, the only king in history who proclaimed religious freedom for all his people and the only king who was a Unitarian. [Pass around a small role of scotch tape or a glue stick so participants can paste the sticker on to the Transylvanian page.]

 

Sing “Under One Sky.”  Then excuse the students one by one by stamping (or writing and initialing) today's date into their passports on the Romania and Hungary page.  Tell them next Sunday there will be a trip to __________ and show them that page in their passports.  Welcome them back to __________[their home country] and put all their passports back in the suitcase. Hand out fact sheet from the game for each child to take home, along with the website address from which they could download the game to make and play at home with their families.