"Ring, sing, Kupala's lyre!"

This was the title of the poetry festival dedicated to the 130th anniversary of the birth of the People's Poet of Belarus Yanka Kupala, which took place in Lyavki near Orsha. Hundreds of guests from Minsk, Vitebsk, Orsha, and other cities of our country came to see the festive event. The pleasant, sunny weather that prevailed that day created an excellent, joyful mood.

The main event of this interesting cultural event was the honoring of the winners and prize-winners of the regional review-competition of literary and musical works "My Cradle – Belarus", dedicated to the anniversary of the famous bards of Belarus Yanka Kupala and Yakub Kolas. Literary, musical-literary clubs and salons participated in the competition. Representatives of the literary and musical club "Vytok" of the Lepel District House of Culture confidently won in all age groups. In the adult age category, Sviatlana Yakubouskaya was awarded a diploma by the Vitebsk Regional Methodological Center for Folk Art and became the first-degree laureate. In the youth age group, Vladimir Lapionak, a 10th-grade student of the gymnasium, took first place, and in the children's group, Nikolai Gutnik, a third-grade student of the Starolyadenskaya Secondary School-Kindergarten, took first place. These very extraordinary, witty boys were also presented with the corresponding laureate diplomas. Our compatriots read their poems, which were very well received by those present, as evidenced by the applause and exclamations of admiration from the festival participants.

Tamara Krasnova-Gusachenko, Chairperson of the regional branch of the Union of Writers of Belarus, informed those present that the second and third places in the regional review-competition, both among adults and in the youth age group, were also won by residents of Lepel. These are Anastasia Grishchuk and Alexander Kotov, Alena Pshonka and Maria Nazarova, respectively. In the children's age category, in addition to Nikolai Gutnik, another young compatriot, Yulia Silvanovich, was awarded a third-degree laureate diploma as a winner.

The head of the literary and musical club "Vytok", Olga Kazakova, was also awarded a special diploma by the Vitebsk Regional Methodological Center for Folk Art.

For participants and guests of the poetry festival “Ring, Sing, Kupala’s Lyre”, poems and songs to the words of Yanka Kupala were performed, a multi-hour amateur art concert was organized by the best creative groups from Orsha district and neighboring districts, exhibitions of works from a number of district Houses of Crafts of the Vitebsk region, including Lepel, were open. Amateurs of Belarusian poetic word with interest examined the picturesque surroundings, natural features, saw the well-maintained bank of the Dnieper River, and various structures of the Kupala Memorial Reserve “Lyavki”, where the national bard lived and worked productively from 1935 to 1941.