All Cultures Day - 2021
On December, 14th, at HSE the annual "All Cultures Day" holiday took place. The event is traditionally organized by students of "Applied Social Psychology" master's program and employees of Center for Sociocultural Research.
All Cultures Day allows students from many different parts of the world to share a piece of their own culture. This year due to COVID-19 restrictions the party was held online for a second time in a row.
Despite the remote format, the holiday ended up being great. When the greeting words by the organizational team and academic supervisor of master's program "Applied social psychology" A. N. Tatarko had been said, guests of the event literally went from one hall to another, being gathered on the interactive platform called "Gather Town", so as to take part in workshops prepared by HSE students.
Participants of the gathering got acquainted with the history of Cheburashka, who is one of the symbols of Russia and also appeared to be well-known in Japan, and even had an opportunity to draw the character.
During another workshop the guests were offered to try to make a candle decorated with an orange what is very popular in Christmas period in Austria. A participant from Mexico was creative and made a candle with a lime instead of an orange.
Another surprise was reading by roles of a Lebanese tale. Doing this, guests got an insight on why once a year the mountain river Nahr Ibrahim – according to the legend – turns out to be of red shades.
The was time for active workshops as well – national Romanian dance allowed participants of the party to come off the screen and move. Everyone was happy to do so.
The party for sure could not be done without musical performances. So guests of All Cultures Day listened to the national Kalmyk and Indian songs.
And of course the guests of the holiday were delighted to visit our virtual kitchen and to get to know the recipes of different traditional meals. Among them there was a recipe of the Arabic sweet called kunafa; of the tabbouleh salad which comes from Syria; as well as of the vegetarian version of the world famous Olivier salad.
At the end of the official part the guests had an opportunity to say a couple of warm words and Christmas wishes to each other, whereupon they continued communication in a more informal context, playing team games and having cozy talks.
The guests themselves reported being pleased with the party. "The experience of all cultures day for me was very exceptional. I wasn’t expecting it to be as interesting as it was considering the online format but I loved it so much. All cultures day was very well organized and fun and I can’t wait for next year" says one of the guests.
Another note: "I was wondering how would an online Cultural day work when I first heard about it, but it turned out great and super fun. Many students participated in it and were active. We learned about other cultures and traditions. There were dancing, drawing, watching videos and even making candles out of oranges to name just a few! The platform used by the organizers was really cool, it was exciting to move from one room to another and discover what activity was there. You could see the effort behind this event and how, even online, we managed to enjoy it a lot. Having so much joy makes me look forward for the next year cultural day."