On December 27, we gathered in Lviv for this year's final event "Let's Sing Christmas Carols Together” bringing representatives of our projects and friends of the Programme.
It is important to us that people involved in the implementation of projects - creators of ideas and change-makers in their regions - create a community of like-minded people, share their experiences, and help each other. Therefore, it was a pleasure to see among the attendees the beneficiaries of our projects from all Programme periods, starting as far back as 2004-2006!
The theme of Christmas united us: traditions of celebration in the border region, attributes of Christmas, traditional festive cuisine, Christmas caroling. Workshops allowed attendees to create a traditional Christmas "spider" from straw, paint a Christmas star in the style of the Yavoriv toy, popular in Roztocze (PLUARoztocze project), decorate a Christmas card and send it to loved ones via Christmas mail. The "Wheel of Fortune" quize also offered a chance to win prizes by answering questions about our Programme and Christmas.
Representatives of the MountainTaste and BugCuisine projects talked about traditional dishes prepared for Christmas in the Boyko area and the Bug Valley, as well as the rituals that accompanied them. The choir of St. George’s Archcathedral in Lviv, which is a partner of our Cross-border BIODIVERSITY project aimed at revitalizing «Mytropolytchi sady» park, sang carols for us. Representatives of the Polish community of Lviv also joined us to share the Polish Christmas traditions and sing Polish carols together with the choir of the Roman Catholic Archcathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lviv. This collaboration continued the work of the GalicianScene project, aimed at strengthening the Polish community in Lviv and the Ukrainian community in Przemyśl.
We managed to build virtual bridges with our project locations in other parts of Ukraine – the beneficiaries of our projects shot videos for us of how they celebrate Christmas. Thanks to them, we saw how the exhibition "Symbols of Christmas" was organized in the renovated Volyn Local History Museum building in Lutsk (SPIDI project), how carols are performed in the Kolochava Center of Carpathian Culture (Rosettes project), how the "Warm Fair" was held in Kosiv (Rosettes project), and how the Christmas tree shines in the Okolnyi Castle in Lutsk (TwoTowers project).
The evening culminated in a magical Christmas performance titled "Creation of the World", leaving everyone with a sense of wonder and holiday spirit.
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