Sunday, September 19, 2010

Unity Through Diversity: Ethnic Festival







This morning we attended the Ethnic Festival. (En route to the Festival we were attracted to the large gathering in front of the Parliament Building - then realized that was a big cycling event.)

From an event announcement:

"There will be held the 10th festival of ethnic minorities under the topic Unity via Variety in Chisinau this Sunday. Representatives of 48 national minorities living in Moldova will transform the public Stephen the Great Square of the capital in a multiethnic citadel of songs, dances, expositions of painting, books and folk artisan works this year. The festival organizers (the Bureau of Interethnic Relationships together with the Culture Ministry and the Chisinau Primaria [city government]) will present to visitors national traditions, customs and food. There will start a concert of children artistic groups and of folk-ethnic ensemble of the capital and other state raions [region] at 10.30 a.m. The festival is aimed to develop the intercultural dialogue and to strengthen friendly relationship between different nationality representatives that live in Moldova. There will participate in the event leaders of ethic-cultural organizations and foreign diplomats accredited in Moldova."

In the attached photos you can see the opening of the festival. President Ghimpu is in the black raincoat. See also the dancers who welcomed us immediately following the remarks. We walked through the Festival to visit the various booths with displays about the culture and traditions of the represented ethnic groups. Here is Peggy at one of the booths in the Jewish section.

(I can only attach 5 photos to a post, so more posts will follow)

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