Learn about Kyiv using prompts

While marking Kyiv Day on May 24-25, residents and guests to the capital city were offered a range of entertainments. The festivities started with the traditional five- kilometer “Race under Chestnut Trees” that started on Khreshchatyk St., then there was a roller skaters’ competition. A kickboxing one took place near the Friendship of Nations Arch, not far from European Square. Mountain climbers displayed their skills on the Dnieper slopes. Kyiv anglers marked the capital’s day in their own way on the banks of the Dnipro while a sailboat regatta took place nearby. A cultural program was simultaneously underway as Ukrainian communities sent their talented singers to the capital. A grade school leavers’ ballrrom dance competition was held on the Spivoche Pole Singing Field, along with a folk song festival. The “Ye” Publishers organized a literary quest for students.

The gist of this game is for four teams — Litteror, 2+2=5, Detail, and Snails — to locate certain places in Kyiv using charts and prompts from literary works. This was how the student players could determine how well they knew literature, the history of Kyiv, and today’s capital.

Informal contacts with writers — Bohdan-Oleh Horobchuk, Yana Dubynianska, Vitalii Kapranov, Olesia Mamchuk, and Yevhenia Kononenko — were probably the most enjoyable part of the quest. They spoke about Kyiv as a “city-text,” business project, a place of comfort. Each sees this city in his/her own way.

How can one stop loving Kyiv? Vitalii Kapranov is convinced that this city simply makes you fall in love with it. He, his family and his brother’s settled in the capital ten years ago: “Regrettably, our authorities have taught us to dislike Kyiv, especially over the past five years. The sad fact is that politics has played a major role, as usual. There has appeared too much garbage in Kyiv — and I mean not only household or industrial waste, but also hatred, bad feelings... and yet you can’t help loving this city!”