Once upon a time: myths and fairy tales across Europe

was a Erasmus plus KA1 youth exchange, which was implemented from 31st of August till 7th of September in Jūrmala, Latvia totally involving 40 participants.

During the exchange the participants promoted intercultural learning through puppetry and storytelling, sharing traditional fairy tales, created and implemented a common tales on the topic of intercultural learning and presented it to the public as a puppet show to other young people at and local and international level.

Our project is directly linked to the general objectives of the Erasmus plus programme, especially the following EU Youth Strategy areas: creativity and culture, education and training, social inclusion, participation and youth & the world.

During the exchange participants had to lead workshops to each other about storytelling, mythology, culture, traditions and identity, they had to present their own country’s — national dances, songs, games, foods and drinks, their own national myths and fairy tales to each other in national groups in a form of short theatre plays.

After in mixed groups participants had to prepare the stories about intercultural learning taking in account all the main elements of a theatre play. The puppets and the stage setup had been made. After the preparation and rehearsal, the stories were presented in “Kaņepes Kultūras centrs” in the Riga center.

During the youth exchange participants also managed to do Riga tour, visit event for Jūrmala Youth days “Kvadrātā”, do talent show and compete among each other in different games and have an evening around fireplace.

Overall the youth exchange was a great experience during which all the initial objectives were reached, great friendships and unforgettable memories were made.

This youth exchange was a result of cooperation among — EvolvingYOUth (Latvia) — Kulturális Kapcsolatokért Alapítvány (Hungary) — Association for Cultural Relations (Finland) — Associazione Studenti per la Città (Italy) — Youthfully Yours SK (Slovakia).

The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein