Volgograd celebrated the International Mother Tongue Day with the “Word” festival

Volgograd celebrated the International Mother Tongue Day with the “Word” festival
The event was held on February 20 and 21, 2023 at the site of the Volgograd Institute of Management, a branch of RANEPA. The event is traditionally organized by the Department of Linguistics and Intercultural Communication of the Faculty of Public and Municipal Administration.

The festival was held for the third time, and if earlier the number of languages represented in the program was no more than 10, this year there were already more than 20.
Representatives of higher educational institutions of Volgograd, hailing from a variety of countries, at the “National Vernissage”, which was the name of the event of the first day, demonstrated their national costumes, told about their elements, presented reproductions and originals of paintings of their people, national musical instruments, household items, products of traditional national crafts.
India and Egypt, Yemen and China, Azerbaijan and Armenia, Georgia and Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and, of course, Russia – the flags of these countries decorated the atrium of the first floor of the Presidential Academy. The guests of the festival were able to join not only the linguistic diversity, but also the cultures of the countries represented here today. 60 people took part in the festival, more than 500 guests.
The Cossacks occupy a special place in Russian culture, and even more so in the Volgograd region. Marina Solovyova came to study at the Volgograd Institute of Management from Serafimovich. Her dance with Cossack checkers fascinated all the spectators, considers this skill very natural for a real Don Cossack: “The Russian word, the folk word, it seems to me, is best preserved in folk songs, in Cossack ones for sure.”
In the family of Sabrina Mohammad Omar, a student of the Presidential Academy, three languages are actively spoken at once. Her dad brought her a bright national Afghan outfit from her historical homeland: “My dad is from Afghanistan, my mom is Tajik, and we speak mostly Russian, since my parents have been living in Russia for a long time. But my parents advise me to read literature in their native languages. The poem that I will read at the festival is Dad’s choice.”
On the second day of the festival, in the format of the literary lounge “Artistic Word”, poems were performed in Spanish, Persian, Tamil, Afghan, Chinese; in languages “native to the USSR”: Uzbek, Tajik, Turkmen, Kazakh, Armenian, Georgian, in the languages of the peoples of the Russian Federation: Russian, Tatar, Darginsky, Kalmyk. The speech of each participant was preceded by a question of an educational quiz, one way or another related to the ethnic group represented, many participants accompanied their speech with presentations, videos, vocal compositions of their people.
According to the organizers, the festival is held among students of higher educational institutions of Volgograd in order to introduce the culture and traditions of the peoples living on the territory of the Russian Federation. The diversity of manifestations of the national cultures of the peoples of Russia requires a particularly careful attitude on the part of society, therefore, familiarity with the peculiarities of cultural identity is a support for the formation of a responsible attitude both to the history of our country and to its future.