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“Sholokhov Spring” is the Holiday Loved and Waited

During May 24–26, 2019, the All-Russian literary folklore holiday “Sholokhov Spring” dedicated to the 114th birthday anniversary of the Don country glorifier will shine bright colours again. Thousands of admirers of the work of Mikhail Sholokhov, lovers and connoisseurs of literature and folk art will come to the homeland of the writer to pay a tribute of respect to his talent, to hear his favourite old Cossack songs and bow to the Father Don River.

The festival program of the big national holiday includes bright events which will take place on these days in Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya, Stanitsa Karghinskaya, Kruzhilin Village and in Rostov-on-Don.

On May 24, the birthday of M.A.Sholokhov, the ceremonies of laying flowers at the tomb of the writer in Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya and at the bust and monument of the writer in Rostov-on-Don will take place.

Traditionally the holiday will be opened by children. In Stanitsa Karghinskaya, where Sholokhov spent his childhood and youth, and began his literary career, the young performers, artists and masters will show their talents during “Children Sholokhov Spring”, and the guests will be taken into the wonderful world of literature, theatre, technical creativity and sport.

Near the Chir River, at the famous Farmstead of Timofey Karghin, the children will travel back in time. They will hear about the history of Stanitsa Karghinskaya, which is closely connected with the life and work of the great writer, will visit the old mill, which was depicted in the novel “And Quiet Flows the Don”, will learn about the agricultural work of the Cossack farmers, what crops they grew, what agricultural implements they used, and will try to peel grain in grokhot and grind flour in a hand mill.

The cinematograph “Ideal”, like 100 years ago, will raise its curtains for the children and actors to empathize together with the personages of the performances. Then the meeting with the theatre will continue at the exhibition “In the World of Fairy Tales” showing handmade puppets – rod puppets, life-size puppets and marionettes.

The young guests of the holiday will enjoy competitions, workshops, riding on horses and ponies, vintage swing and other amusements. The children will master the basics of weaving and pottery painting, they will learn balls modeling,

will see demonstration performances of radio-controlled models on the water and even will take part in launching a rocket.

The concert program will include a show of young circus performers from Moscow, children folklore groups from the Rostov and Volgograd regions.

The winners of the creative contest “Our Sholokhov” will show their talents: the young reciters will perform fragments from Sholokhov’s works, the artists and masters of arts and crafts will show their drawings and handicraft articles dedicated to the Don country.

The young guests will be shown around the parish school, where the would-be Nobel Prize winner studied, will learn what school subjects were taught early in the XX century, what games the children played and how they prepared for military service. Here the boys can try to get skills in Cossack martial arts: throwing a spear and a knife, cutting rods, lassoing a horse and sitting down correctly in the saddle.

For the first time the children holiday will include a Cup “May Hope”– a futsal tournament joined by young sportsmen. The “Children Sholokhov Spring” will end with a gala concert.

On the same day, May 24, an evening meeting dedicated to the Year of Theatre in Russia and to the work of M.A.Sholokhov shown in the theatre will be held in the Palace of Culture of Vyoshenskaya. The viewers will learn about the first literary works of the young writer, about creation of the folk Cossack theatre on his initiative, will see living images of Sholokhov’s works. The concert program will be joined by professional and amateur groups of the Don country and guests from Mordovia, North Ossetia, the Voronezh and Belgorod regions, the Donetsk People’s Republic, and others.

In the morning of May 25, the residents and guests of Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya will see a dramatized procession of folk groups singing and dancing while moving to the central square. There will begin a traditional craftsmen fair, folk concerts in the stage areas and dramatized meetings in the Cossack “kurens”(Cossack houses). This year the festival will be joined by the Cossacks of the Stanitsa Cossack Society of the Union of Cossack Warriors of Russia and Abroad “Sergiyevo-Mikhailovskoye”. They will show their skills in traditional Cossack martial arts and offer the guests to try themselves in throwing knives, axes, lances, nails, horseshoes and others, in sabre flanking and cutting a fixed target.

The folklore holiday “In Our Don Country…” in Kruzhilin Village, a homeland of the writer, will tell about history and traditions of the Upper Don Cossacks, whom the writer brightly depicted in his works. The holiday program includes folk concerts, merry festivity, interactive tour about the Cossack Farmstead of the late XIX – early XX centuries, where any volunteer can try himself in ploughing on oxen, grinding flour with millstones, twisting a rope on the prosak.

As well, one can get into the world of the Don Cossacks in the centre of Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya – in the “Entertaining Hamlet”, where both children and adults are always welcome. The guests are offered to taste traditional dishes of Cossack cuisine, to join the workshops of masters, to visit an old Cossack photo studio. Finally each visitor will have original photos and souvenirs for good memory of Vyoshenskaya.

Literary meetings will be held in the central library and in the People’s House of the Museum-Reserve. They will be joined by the writers from Moscow, the Crimea, Karachay-Cherkessia, the Stavropol Territory, the Volgograd, Voronezh and Rostov regions.

During the holiday the People’s House will run the exhibitions telling about the life and work of M.A.Sholokhov during 1950 – 1980s, will show the films based on the works by the writer and theatre performances for children.

The whole day songs will be heard over Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya, and in the evening the residents and guests from different parts of our big country will come to the embankment for a gala concert in honour of Mikhail Sholokhov, the great Russian writer, a brilliant artist of the word. Bright stars of fireworks will flash in the sky, and 114 candles will slowly float across the dark waters of the legendary river.

The All-Russian literary folklore holiday well-known far outside Russia carefully preserves its traditions. “Sholokhov Spring” born on the initiative of the grateful countrymen and supported by the numerous admirers of the talent of the great writer has become a national birthday of the glorifier of the Don Cossacks. Thousands of people know about the holiday, love it and impatiently wait for it.

And this year again, “Sholokhov Spring” will be colourful, bright, cheerful, and hospitable. Welcome to the home country of Mikhail Sholokhov!

Olga Bakhtiyarova