Lobachevsky UniverSum Festival of Cultures held at UNN
On 21 May, the UNN hosted the international youth culture festival Lobachevsky UniverSum. The event coincided with the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development.
An exhibition of national cultures was staged in the central alley of the university campus, where students talked about the traditions of their countries, presented folk costumes and numerous artifacts, demonstrated national dances.
Addressing the guests and participants of the festival, Alexander Bedny, UNN Vice-Rector for International Affairs, noted that the festival of cultures is a good tradition of Lobachevsky University: "Dear friends, this festival is a day when we rejoice and celebrate! I would like to congratulate you on this wonderful festival. You are so beautiful, so different, but you are united by one university. The university is of course about education, the university is of course about science, but we know very well that the university is also about communication and cultural enrichment. Students from over a hundred countries come to our University, and today we have gathered representatives of 29 nations of the world. We create this diverse environment, so that you can communicate with each other, get to know each other's cultures, enrich yourselves spiritually and gain new experience - new experience of communication and of learning different cultures. I wish you every success in this."
As Alexander Bedny noted, the Youth Festival of Cultures, timed to coincide with the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, is taking place at Lobachevsky University for the third time, and the more countries are represented, the more interesting, colourful and diverse this event becomes. This time, students from China, Vietnam, Serbia, Spain, Azerbaijan, Turkey, South Africa, Yemen, Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon, Syria, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico and other countries presented their cultures and traditions. Russian students also took part in the festival and prepared a presentation about Russia.
According to Konstantin Kemaev, Head of the UNN International Cooperation Office, such festivals are important for international students as a way of self-expression and cross-cultural communication. Such events, of course, arouse great interest among Russian students and university faculty members.
"We have been carrying out systematic work with international students on national themes for a long time. From our own experience we know that it is very important when students bring with them some artifacts reflecting national culture and household items. When they go away for vacations, we always recommend that they bring something appropriate for such events. As you can see, they gladly do it," said Konstantin Kemaev.
The Lobachevsky UniverSum Festival of Cultures ended with an evening gala concert, and needless to say, the auditorium was packed full.
