On the 25th of May we celebrate The Geek Pride Day all around a world. Be proud if you have special interests like science, IT, special books or movies.
The idea of Geek Pride Day originate from Spain. In 2006 a spanish blogger Germán Martínez choosed this day to celebrate the geek culture because it is cincide with the release date of the 1977 Star Wars movie. This event got attention all around the world. The biggest celebration was in Madrid where 300 geeks played  a game of a human Pacman together. In U.S. the first Geek Pride Day was in 2008, one year later the Science Channel offered special programming for viewer.
The supporters made a list with the basic rights and responsibilities of geeks like they have right to not like football or other sports, they don't have to be fashionable and their responsibilities include to watch every geeky movie on opening night buy every geeky book among the firsts. This day help those kids whose are interested in these topics, more focused on studies  are not so popular in schools to make them aware that they are as valuable as the others, maybe more talented in scientific topics.
You can celebrate this event like watch a scifi movie, play with your favourite computer game. I think the best day to celebrate if you visit one of the event because you have an opportunity to meet with other "geeks".

Resources used:
https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/geek-pride-day/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geek_Pride_Day
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Written by: Ágnes Illés

Europe Day, held on 9 May every year, celebrates peace and unity in Europe. The holiday commemorates the day in 1950 when French foreign minister, Robert Schuman, presented his proposal to create an organization of European countries. Also sometimes known as Schuman Day, the day aims to garner continuing support for the European Union and to educate citizens in member states and people in the rest of the world about the benefits of such an organization.

The European Union was not created in one go by the Maastricht Treaty but was the result of gradual integration since 1945, an evolution when one level of union has been seen to work, giving confidence and impetus for a next level. In this way, the EU can be said to have been formed by the demands of its member nations.

At his speech in Paris in 1950, Robert Schuman, the then French foreign minister, set out his idea for this new form of political cooperation in Europe, which would make war between Europe's nations unthinkable. His vision was to create a European institution that would pool and manage coal and steel production. A treaty creating such a body was signed just under a year later (the historical 'Schuman declaration'). Schuman's proposal is considered to be the beginning of what is now the European Union.
Europe’s post-war nations weren’t just after peace, they were also after solutions to economic problems, such as raw materials being in one country and the industry to process them in another. War had left Europe exhausted, with industry greatly damaged and their defences possibly unable to stop Russia.

In order to solve this six neighbouring countries agreed in The Treaty of Paris to form an area of free trade for several key resources including coal, steel and iron ore, chosen for their key role in industry and the military. This body was called the European Coal and Steel Community and involved Germany, Belgium, France, Holland, Italy, and Luxembourg. It began on 23 July 1952 and ended on 23 July 2002, replaced by further unions.

France had suggested the ECSC to control Germany and to rebuild industry; Germany wanted to become an equal player in Europe again and rebuild its reputation, as did Italy; the Benelux nations hoped for growth and didn’t want to be left behind. France, afraid Britain would try and quash the plan, didn’t include them in initial discussions, and Britain stayed out, wary of giving up any power and content with the economic potential offered by the Commonwealth.

Also created, in order to manage the ECSC, were a group of ‘supranational’ (a level of governance above the nation state) bodies: a Council of Ministers, a Common Assembly, a High Authority and a Court of Justice, all to legislate, develop ideas and resolve disputes. It was from these key bodies that the later EU would emerge, a process which some of the ECSC’s creators had envisaged, as they explicitly stated the creation of a federal Europe as their long term goal.

The Treaty on European Union, signed at Maastricht in 1991, formally established the European Union as the successor to the EC. At the same time, Maastricht expanded the concept of European Union into new areas. It introduced a Common Foreign and Security Policy and moved towards an EU coordinating policy on asylum, immigration, drugs and terrorism.
EU citizenship was brought into being for the first time, allowing people from member countries to move freely between member states. The treaty included a Social Chapter, from which the UK opted out, laying down EU policies on workers' rights and other social issues. Crucially, Maastricht established the timetable for economic and monetary union and specified the economic and budgetary criteria which would determine when countries were ready to join.

The subsequent Stability and Growth Pact tightened up the approach to these criteria, stressing that strict fiscal discipline and coordination would be vital to the success of economic and monetary union. It also laid down penalties for members failing to control budget deficits.
Nowadays, as of the end of the middle of 2016, there are twenty-seven countries in the European Union: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
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Each year, the EU institutions in Brussels open their doors to the public for celebrations and activities (this year on 5 May) during the Europe Day celebrations, while EU Delegations around the world organise activities and events throughout the whole month of May. Moreover this day gives everyone, not only EU citizens the chance of learning about the European Union’s past and history as well as about its benefits and accomplishments in times like the one we are presented with right now.

Sources:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/0/what-is-the-eu-why-was-it-formed-and-when-was-it-created/
https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/topics/european-union
https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/international-and-european-days 

​written by Karo Van

On the 4th of May we had an opportunity to visit the 4th BUSINESS STUDENTS/ LEADER ENTERPRISES . On this event 480 elementary and secondary school students of Serres along with their teachers displayed their own business solutions and their special product. The goal of this event was to give a chance for the young generation to create free, show their innovative ideas,  develop virtual businesses, doing all this in an entertraining way. The Chamber of Commerce of Serres is a unique and pioneering institution in Greece which was a perfect place for this event.
At 10 o'clock the pedestrian street in front of the Chamber of Commerce was full of students and parents whose proudly took pictures of their children and their products. We saw many useful things like soaps from olive oil which is good for your skin and hair. Another idea was a place where you can rent bicycle. I think this is really good because the best way to travel in Serres is the bycicle and we must support the creation of new bicycle paths because I saw only one on the main street and another one in the valley. There were some class whose made energy bars from nuts and healthy seeds. On the other table we saw a special car which helps the blind people orientation in the apartment. The same class made a clever watch for companies to communicate through this instead of phone. They started to work on their project in october, other classes needed 3-4 months to develop their plan. Some students offered food like bread, cookies, sausage. In the competition participated a school for disabled students. These special pupils serve buffet for teachers with coffee, cookie of course with adults help but it also helps in their healing. Most of the students is really young but we could see that they are really proud about what they made. Of course they had help from teachers, experts but I think it is really good that this competition makes them think, they can be creative and learn something about business life. We attended a lecture where besides the teachers, students also talked about the product being prepared. It was good to see the enthusiasm I did not experience in previous competitions in Hungary. I really liked some of products. At the end of the competition we bought a soap from the students, which makes our skin beautiful.
Even though there's the competition word in the name of the event, this is not really about competing with each other, this was all about participation, innovative ideas and getting the exprenience of business life. There were no winners there or we can say everyone won.
 
Written by: Ágnes Illés

On the International Firefighters' Day we are commemorating those five firefighters whose died in tragic circumstances in 1999 due to a bushfire in Australia. The 4th of May is the day of Saint Florian, patron saint of firefighters. We celebrate the fireworkers on this day around Europe.
The 4th of May is a national holiday in Australia. Linton was the city where the tragedy happened. On th 2nd December 1999, there was a large bush fire which demanded the lives of five people. It was an urgent mutual goal to extinguish the fire in the large populated area. Garry Vredeveldt, Chris Evans, Stuart Davidson, Jason Thomas, and Matthew Armstrong were the part of a strike team and their mission was to help extinguish the flames. Tha tragedy came when the wind suddenly switched direction and the truck strated to flame. This incident inspired JJ Edmondson to create International Fire Fighters Day to suppert those brave firefighters whose risk their life everyday to save other people.
One main aspect of Fire Fighters Day to emphasizes the importance of the more intensive and thorough training of the firefighters moreover draws attention fire prevention in schools, homes etc.
You can express your sympathy, your gratitude to the firefighters by wearing the blue and red ribbons pinned together which is the symbol of the main elements firefighters work with, red for fire and blue for water. Besides weraing the firefighters symbol you can participate in a memorial or recognition event.
On the first Sunday of May the sirens what sounds for 30 seconds speak for firefighters who have died in the work. We call it Sound off because after the sound of the sirens, everything silence for a minute.
Resources used:
https://www.firefightersday.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Firefighters%27_Day
Written by: Ágnes Illés