All of Ukraine on one street

Last Friday the Museum of Folk Architecture and Everyday Life of Ukraine in the village of Pyrohove saw the opening of the 4 th All-Ukrainian Exhibition and Fair “The Ukrainian Countryside Invites You.” Visitors could see outstanding monuments from each of the 24 oblasts of Ukraine and the Crimea by walking down one path through “The Contemporary Ukrainian Village” exposition. At the various stands visitors found answers to the questions “What is rural and green tourism?” and “What are its prospects in Ukraine?” The Day’s readers can read the answers to these and other questions as well as correspondent’s impressions in the current issue.

The exhibit was organized by the League for Promoting Rural Green Tourism in Ukraine and involves about 1,000 folk craftsmen, artists, and green tourism specialists, who have been popularizing this kind of vacation “in the provinces.” Representatives of almost every oblast held master classes in Easter egg painting and pottery, and displayed their own pieces of decorative and applied art.

Almost every display stand offered cold or hot meals with a traditional glass of vodka and a “Bon appetit!” The hospitable participants of the fair especially wished to treat the “patron” of rural tourism Vyacheslav Kyrylenko, Vice-Prime Minister for Humanitarian Issues, who nevertheless confined himself to modestly kissing a loaf of wheat bread.

The atmosphere was quite cheerful, all the more so as the participants brought in musical groups, who performed both instrumental and vocal numbers. The expression “We offer you whatever we have” may be considered the exhibition’s motto, because our people brought their own property and invited us to enjoy the richness and come back to visit them — as tourists, of course.