The Cleveland Cultural Gardens Federation hosted the 74th annual One World Day on August 25, 2019. Police estimates say that over 30,000 people visited the Gardens and attended One World Day.
With the Cultural Gardens Centennial Peace Plaza expected to be completed next year, this was a chance to focus on the North end of the Gardens and the Serbian Garden served as host.
A highlight of One World Day is the Parade of Flags where people in costumes of their heritage carry the flags. This year was undoubtedly the largest and most colorful in memory. Efforts were made to include communities that do not (yet) have a Cultural Garden and they were warmly welcomed.
Flags after the Parade
See video and photos of the Parade of Flags as follows:
Video of the Parade and units from Start Page 1
Parade of Flags Page 2
Parade of Flags Page 3
Parade of Flags Page 4 - through the end
A very special event took place just as the Parade units reached the reviewing stand. The Baltic Way or Baltic Chain was a peaceful political demonstration that occurred on 23 August 1989. Approximately two million people joined their hands to form a human chain spanning 675.5 kilometers (419.7 mi) across the three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which were considered at the time to be constituent republics of the Soviet Union.
To commemorate this historic event and in keeping with the Cultural Gardens motto of "Peace through Mutual Understanding" a remembrance of the Baltic Way took place.
The beginning of the lengthy Baltic Way remembrance
Video and photos of the Baltic Way remembrance/reenactment
After the Parade of Flags, people gathered in the Serbian Garden for the traditional Welcome and Naturalization Ceremony. This began with the posting of the colors by a Cleveland Police Color Guard and the singing of the National Anthem led by the Kosovo Choir.
Then there were remarks from Serbian Cultural Garden president Alex Machaskee, Cleveland Cultural Gardens president Dr. Wael Khoury, past-president Sheila Crawford, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, County Council's Yvonne Conwell and City Council's Kevin Conwell.
Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. administered the Oath of Citizenship
That was followed by the highlight of the Naturalization Ceremony: the swearing in of almost 2 dozen new citizens from all over the world.
Following the Naturalization Ceremony, the Serbian Garden hosted numerous other diverse acts.
Indian dancers in Serbian Garden
All of the Cleveland Cultural Gardens were very active on the record-breaking 74th One World Day with numerous performances, music, dancing, food and fun.
One of the new additions proved to be extremely popular. The Gaelic Glen Alpacas in the new Children's Village delighted visitors and young and old wanted to pet the soft fur and take photographs.
Be sure to visit the pages of the other ethnic groups on ClevelandPeople.com to see photos and videos of their activities at One Word Day.
For example:
Slovak Fujara and Storytelling in Children's Village
Michael Anderko showing the fujara
Gagarin bust unveiling in the Russian Garden
Unveiling of the Yuri Gagarin bust in the Russian Cultural Garden
Flag-raising ceremony in the Vietnamese Cultural Garden
Vietnamese Cultural Garden on One World Day
Pakistani Garden dhol performance
Playing the dhol
Ukrainian Bandura
Brothers Volodya and Sergiy Yarema with banduras
And More!
74th annual One World Day main page (this page)
Parade of Flags Main Page
Baltic Way commemoration
Naturalization and Welcoming Ceremony
One World Day People Page - Who do you recognize?
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