The regional festival of amateur associations "Apple Fest" will gather guests on August 18 on the territory of the Memorial Museum of gardener-breeder Ivan Sikora in the village of Alashki, Sharkovshchyna district, as reported to a BELTA correspondent by the Vitebsk Regional Methodical Center of Folk Art.
The regional festival of amateur associations "Apple Fest" will gather guests on August 18 on the territory of the Memorial Museum of gardener-breeder Ivan Sikora in the village of Alashki, Sharkovshchyna district, as reported to a BELTA correspondent by the Vitebsk Regional Methodical Center of Folk Art.
For the festival guests, interactive areas with national cuisine, theatrical performances, and folk dances will be open. Participants from clubs of gardeners, florists, and vegetable growers will arrive, and a fashion theatre will perform. The operation of attractions, the blessing of new harvest apples, and the theatrical performance "Yablychny Spas - Vyasel'e Prypas" are planned. Participants will be able to try a wide assortment of dishes and drinks made from this fruit.
In the evening, in the Sharkovshchyna park, the Green Apple. Young and Talented pop song contest among the district's youth, a performance by the vocal-instrumental ensemble Cotton Buds, and a disco await everyone.
Apple Saviour celebrations will also take place in other settlements of the region. On August 19, an ritual event "Ostrovshchina's Traditions on Apple Saviour" will be held in the agro-town of Ostrovshchina, Polotsk district. Its programme includes village games for strength and agility, fortune-telling on apple peels, and other divinations for young men and women.
"On Saviour's Day, not only girls told fortunes about their future husbands, but also young men about their future wives. Young people were treated to apples of the first harvest, with the words: "He who gets a sour apple is destined to marry early and have a whiny wife. And he who gets a sweet apple will get a rosy beauty as his wife. In addition, in ancient times, there was a tradition on Apple Saviour's Day: to comb the hair of unmarried girls with a wooden comb made from an apple tree. It was believed that this helped the beauties to acquire a pleasant blush and get rid of headaches," - reported the Polotsk District Culture Centre.
Apple Spas is one of the first harvest festivals. On this day, apples and honey are consecrated to appease the approaching autumn. Among all fruit trees, the apple tree is especially revered by the Eastern Slavs. It not only symbolizes life, eternity, and immortality, but it was also believed that it could bestow these qualities upon a person by gifting them with its fruits. On Spas, in many places, apples consecrated in church were taken to the cemetery, where one fruit was placed on the grave of each relative.