Alexander Pushkin Celebration Russian Cultural Garden June 4, 2023
Alexander Pushkin is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet, and the founder of modern Russian literature. He is considered to be comparable to William Shakespeare.
Alexander Pushkin’s poem Ruslan and Ludmila begins with a prologue in which he (the author) sits beneath an oak tree, where a learned cat on a golden chain tells him a fantastic tale.
Beside the sea stands a green oak tree, And on the tree a golden chain: And on the chain a learned cat Walks round and round and round again; When he goes left he tells a tale, And when he goes right he sings a refrain.
The Russian Cultural Garden honored Pushkin on his birthday with a celebration of the famous cat.
Pushkin cat in Russian Cultural Garden
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Svetlana Stolyarova is the leader of the Russian Cultural Garden in Cleveland Ohio.
Svetlana Stolyarova
She and her team hosted a "Magical Journey to Lukomorye" in their Garden in honor of Alexander Pushkin's birthday on June 6, 1799. In the heart of the garden stands a magnificent oak tree, much like the one in Pushkin's famous fairy tale. A golden chain is tied to the tree, and at its end, a learned cat walks day and night, singing and telling enchanting stories.
In this video, Svetlana said that Alexander Pushkin is like the Shakespeare of the Russian language. She also explained why the Cleveland Russian community has decided to go forward with events like this despite the world situation.
Adding to the magic of the day was a performance by Sky Aerial Studio Acrobats to "awaken the sleeping princess." Here is a video sample of their performance.
Sky Aerial Studio Acrobats
Visitors were impressed by the centerpiece of the Russian Cultural Garden - a bust of the first man in space Yuri Gagarin. Surrounding the bust is a Walk of Fame made up of bricks featuring Russian cultural figures and Nobel Prize winners such as Anton Chekov, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ivan Turgenev, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Vladimir Nabokov, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Dmitri Shostakovich, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and dozens more.
Watch this short video tour of the Russian Cultural Garden Gagarin bust and Walk of Fame.
Yuri Gagarin bust and Walk of Fame
The event included costumes, good food, resource tables and more.
It was a great event and all were happy except maybe this dog who waited patiently, to no avail, for the wise cat to come down.
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