Vienna, Austria - UPF in Austria has established a tradition to invite a country or region of the world to share its Christmas traditions for the annual Christmas event. In this way audiences have enjoyed the Christmas spirit of Russia, Brazil, and Africa during recent years. This year it was the turn of the Nordic countries, which are in northern Europe. The connection was made through Mr. Herman Kroiher, who served as the director of the Austrian Tourist Board in Sweden and is now a board member of the Austrian-Swedish Association and the Association of Nordic Countries.
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At the beginning of the event Mr. Peter Haider gave a report on UPF’s activities in Austria during the year 2011: Altogether 32 larger and smaller events took place in Vienna, among them programs on Sudan, Egypt, Brazil, and Indonesia. A conference on "The Role of Youth in Creating Peace" was held in the UN in Vienna, and and conference addressed the "The Situation of People of African Descent." Various meetings took place on UN commemorative days, such as the International Day of Families and the International Day of Peace. In addition, there were six major cultural events.
Ambassador Walther Lichem, who had attended international UPF conferences in Malta and London, reported about his impressions of these events, which dealt with "Europe and Africa" and "human rights."
In the second part of the program, the choir of the Vienna University faculty for Scandinavian languages sang. After the ceremonial entry of Lucia, crowned as the queen of light, Christmas songs in Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Icelandic, and even Baltic languages were presented. Mr. Kroiher explained about Scandinavian Christmas traditions, illustrated with beautiful slide. He himself had invited so many people that almost 200 people attended this Christmas event. To conclude the program Ambassadors for Peace were appointed.
At the end, traditional food from Scandinavia was served to everybody, and people stayed on until late in the evening.