Art and history met in the first of the “White Nights of Razgrad”. Traditionally, the Festival of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, organized by the Municipality of Razgrad and the Regional History Museum with the courtesy of Vinprom Ludogorie, begins on the night before Saint John’s Eve. And now participants and guests were taken care of with impeccable organization and hospitality by the museum workers in the house museums, where the first “white night” was held.
The director of the museum, Tanya Todorova, launched the series of events, which continued until midnight, in the house museum “Stanka and Nikola Ikonomovi”, where for the first time since the beginning of the festival, a book by a local author – the director of the RB “Prof. Boyan Penev” and winner of the “Zlatev Pegasus” award Dimitar Petrov. The stories about Razgrad “The Secret of the Tree” were presented by the editor at “Persei” publishing house Plamen Totev. The premiere was honored by the Razgrad poet Stanka Nikolova, who has been living in Australia for years, and the writer Neda Antonova sent a letter with her opinion about the collection of 13 short stories. Singer Tekin Zekeriev also took part in the event.
The events at the Ananie Yavashov House Museum were titled “Return to the Past – The Other Yavashov”. There, actors from the “Impulse” Theater Formation paraded in retro costumes from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And in her inimitable style, Prof. Rositsa Angelova PhD, head of the Department of “New and Latest History” in RHM – Razgrad, presented the Bulgarian-Latin botanical dictionary of Academician Ananie Yavashov from the museum’s collection and the photographic exhibition “Bio logical” by Maria Kaschieva PhD. Who did not hide her excitement that her beautiful photos from a project related to restoration activities in a rare natural habitat – “Ponto – Sarmatian steppes”, in the Northern Black Sea region, will be next to the notebook of 102 pages of Academician Yavashov, foundation of his Bulgarian-Latin botanical dictionary.
Various Saint John’s Eve traditions were presented in the Ethnographic Museum. The guests passed through a Saint John’s wreath of various herbs, each received a sip of wormwood, which is used to wash the eyes against lessons, as well as a wristlet with red thread. The girls also had the opportunity to participate in the “silent water” ritual. For each of the wrists dropped into a pool of still water, names were given as to what kind of groom the girl would find. The musicians and dancers from the Tsar Kaloyan Folklore Ensemble from Tsar Kaloyan and the Children’s Dance Studio “Kapanche” from the community center “Napreduk” took part in the reenactments and musical performance in the courtyard of the Ethnographic Museum. On the way out, everyone had the opportunity to take home coals from the ritual fire.
The evening ended in the atmosphere of the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the courtyard of the Dimitar Nenov House Museum. There, artists from the Theater and Music Center – Razgrad: Stage “Nazum Hikmet” and a quartet from the Razgrad Philharmonic “Prof. Dimitar Nenov” presented popular works by Austrian composers and a reenactment of newspaper articles from the beginning of the 20th century at the first balls in Razgrad.