On September 22, 2018, the V international festival of ethno-cultural traditions "Call of Polesie" was held in Polesie, in agro-town Lyaskovichi of the Petrikov district.
At the opening of the cultural forum in agro-town Minister of culture of Belarus Yuri Bondar expressed the following opinion: "the international festival of ethnic and cultural traditions "Call of Polesie" opens the secret corners of the rich Belarusian culture, which is the basis of our national identity."
With bread and salt greeted us deployed approximately 3 km of the representation from the creative teams, craftsmen and artisans from the 8 districts of the Gomel (Zhitkovichi, Yelsk, Kalinkovichi, Lelchitsy, Mozyr, Narovlya, Petrikov, Khoiniki) and 3 districts of Brest (Luninets, Pinsk, Stolin) regions, as well as groups of foreign countries. All festival events were aimed at the formation of pride for their country, city, village, the preservation of historical and cultural heritage, folk traditions and respect for the Belarusian traditional culture.
The festival is a great platform to spend time with the whole family in an exciting and rich way. Here there is fun for both adult and child. Many entertainments were organized for children: attractions, electric cars, sports competitions and relay races, sale of various toys, cotton candy and popcorn, and also it was possible to drive on beautiful ponies. For adults, too, there was a lot of entertainment for every taste. On the embankment of Pripyat for the first time worked site "in its edge, as in Paradise." According to the concept of farmsteads they all store one Polesskaya region, in which each area (yard) is a village, really existing in the territory of the region, with an unusual name. Residents of each village meet guests with a theatrical performance, which displays a version of the origin of the name of the village (information from ethnographers, folklore carriers, etc.). Fishing was organized (competition fishing enthusiasts, fishing hands), as well as boat rental and boat trips on the river Pripyat. For the first time there were exhibitions "festival of books and press", where you can get a book with an autograph and "Tourist Polesie". As part of the festival, the contest "Polesskaya krasavitsa 2018" was held, the winner of which was a resident of the city.. Petrikova Julia Gerasimenko. Also for the first time the festival "the village dance", which was represented by traditional folk games, performances of authentic teams for the first time the festival social dance "Dance in the old fashioned way", with master classes on domestic dance, the festival of historical reconstruction "battle of the ages" with jousting tournaments, thematic photozone, presentations of historical reconstruction clubs, the holiday of the Belarusian people's theatre Batleika "Батлейка.by" showing Battlecry performances, master classes on making props, puppets for the Nativity, the thematic exhibition "Brand of the district"was held for the first time by presentations of the Nativity scene of the Gomel and Brest regions. It is impossible not to mention the site "Cinema on the grass", which was liked by children and adolescents (showing on the outdoor area of thematic films and videos about Polesie, feature films with the organization of the recreation area). Delight gave demonstration performances of pupils of Department of equestrian sport "of e-learning materials on applied kinds of sports" master classes truckaway riding, trick riding.
The concert program was also very rich. The opening ceremony of the festival was attended by more than 20 folk groups from the Pripyat Polesie, as well as festival brands, which are famous for the Polesie region, such as the international festival of choreographic art "Sozhski Karagod" (Gomel), the Republican festival of folk art "Bereginya" (October), the Republican festival of folk humor "Avtyuki" (B. Big Avtyuki, Kalinkovichi district) and others. The festival was attended by professional and Amateur collectives of Belarus and foreign countries, Belarusian musical band from Minsk, who represented Belarus at the song contest "Eurovision-2017", NaviBand, honored collective of the Republic of Belarus "national academic orchestra of symphonic and variety music of Belarus" under the leadership of artistic Director, people's artist of Belarus, laureate of the State prize of the Republic of Belarus, laureate of the Union state, "Honorable night", Professor Mikhail Finberg. The evening show program with the participation of the group "DROZDY" and the youth dance and entertainment program with the participation of soloists of the production center of GU "Gomel regional Philharmonic"was rich. All ended with a youth disco and fireworks.
The festival "Call of Polesie" is an opportunity at least for a day to touch the original culture of the Belarusian Polesie, because it was here that representatives from different parts of the region gathered, carefully preserve the traditions of their land. And I'm really glad I didn't miss this opportunity.
Tan Christina,
Studenka 3 course of faculty of Pelagia
Photos from BelTA website
