Cradle for talents

What does the word “oreli” mean? According to the dictionary it is a swing or cradle used for babies shortly after their birth. It is also a name of the children folk festival which has been held for three years already by the Ivan Honchar Museum Ukrainian Centre of Folk Culture together with the production company Ethno Sound. The current festival was held on the territory of National Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine in the village of Pyrohiv.

Oreli’s aim is not only to show what kinds of art children are already involved in, but also to get other kids involved in them. This year 25 child folklore groups came for the festival from different parts of the country: the Kyiv region, Chernihiv, Donetsk, Poltava, Odesa, Zhytomyr, and Vinnytsia. There were also nearly 200 representatives of art studios and art schools, folk masters and folklorists. That is why there was a wide range of leisure activities to choose from: doll-making, pysankas-making, wicker weaving, embroidering, wood carving, pottery, weaving, etc.

One could take art classes right at the festival, as children didn’t just show what they had already done in years of studying at art studios, but also gave master classes for those who were interested.

“I am now weaving a tapestry and a few kids already asked me to show how it is done,” told Nadia Mushtak, student of seventh grade. She studies at Chernihiv Oblast Children Center for Culture and Art. “I’ve been going to a beading and tapestry studio. This tapestry that I am finishing now is the first I’ve ever made. It has Veles on it. He was a pagan god of trade and prosperity. My teacher helped me to choose an idea for the image of the tapestry, she also helped me draw the sketch which serves as the base for weaving a tapestry. The picture is almost ready, it took me a month to make it. At first I had to wind thread for the base and then plait other threads according to the image. Despite the fact that it was pretty hard at the beginning I am enjoying it now.”

“Judging from the work of our center, which exists for 15 years already, children’s interest for folk art is constantly growing. There are 10 studios at the center: straw weaving, beading, tapestry, ceramics, leather working, wood carving, pottery, and there is also a studio of making and restoring musical instruments. Nearly a hundred children come to our studios every week,” told The Day Nadia Zavalina, leading methodologist of the Chernihiv Oblast Children Center for Culture and Art. “Many are inspired after participating in festivals like Oreli. Events like that should be held more often.”

However, like the organizers themselves say that in order to have festivals like this one they need sponsor support, not just good intentions. Oreli has both of these factors. They managed to do a lot in three years of the festival’s existence. Petro Honchar, director of Ivan Honchar Museum said that, while the first festival was held pretty quietly without much ceremony in an almost homelike atmosphere, this time a much greater number of people heard about it.

“We organize this festival so that we, as Ukrainians could survive and have hope that children won’t forget who we really are,” stressed Petro Honchar. “The cultural environment forms only good traits in a person, because culture gives a person feeling of comfort. We can have a positive attitude to the achievements of other peoples, respect them, but respect for what belongs to us and was passed onto us from our ancestors should be in our blood. By inoculating love for traditional folk culture upon our children we can have a chance to keep them alive.”

There also was a fairy tale workshop at the festival as what if not fairy tales cultivates the best traits in children.

“Fairy tales are a basis of our existence,” continued the conversation Honchar. “Fairy tales are a quintessence of consciousness, which embraces the form of thinking of a child that learns about the world not through understanding but through subconscious perception. A child brought up on fairy tales has more creative thinking and has more powerful categories than a child that didn’t read them. If one would think of children’s language in a village where they called water ‘diudia’ and fire —‘zhyzha.’ A child, before he could articulate something, formed creative thinking. Fairy tales, just like children’s language, develop creative thinking.”

One could read and listen to fairy tales together with writers and famous authors of fairy tales like Lirnyk Sashko and his students. For example, Alla Sokol has been writing for children for nearly 20 years now. She told The Day about participating in many book exhibits and shared with her observations about how children’s books sell the best. By the way, grandmothers are first among those who buy such books, they look for some interesting and a kind plot. Mothers come second, it is important for them that a book would teach and develop. Fathers are least interested — when they do buy something for a kid they ask him what he likes and then take it.

“It is not that easy to write for children,” says Alla SOKOL. “It’s because you have to look at the world with the sincere and naive eyes of a child. Children want to understand many things and they have to acquire that understanding from somewhere. Kids perceive most things through animals, which is why my books talk about them. For example, the book Lisovi Khudozhnyky (Forest Artists) has gradually moved on to Dorozhnia Azbuka Dlia Maliat (Road ABC for Kids), where little animals come to an unknown city and they don’t know about street or traffic rules — nothing. The adventures that happen to them make little readers remember traffic rules which are so important for every child. There is a book where the main characters are children. It is about the family budget: where it comes from, how it is spent. This book teaches children how to help parents save money. As for me, an entertaining, interesting and somewhat instructive plot is the best for children, who only learn to understand this world.”

All the fairy tales teach to be kind, noble, and help those who are weak, that is why parents who read them to their children will never loose from it. They also won’t loose from visiting Oreli Festival next year. This could be a nice way to get their children involved with folk art, which has never taught and will never teach anything bad.