Folklore forum

А Folklore forum was held on 10 and 11 May 2021 within the project “Interpretation of Balkan Folklore Heritage” CB007.2.13.012 under the INTERREG IPA CBC BULGARIA-SERBIA programme.

The event began with a presentation of the research on the folklore dances and rituals (analysis on the rythm and dance patterns, style and dance techniques, elements of the traditonal folklore costumes, etc.) in the cross-border area (Pernik, Kustendil-Bulgaria and the region of Nishava-Serbia) which was conducted in the first stage of the project by Milcho Georgiev – ethnochoreologist and folklorist.

“The state of the folklore traditions in the cross-border region” with an emphasis on the area of Kyustendil was the topic of the presentation of Veska Spasova, PhD, an ethnologist in the Regional Museum of History in Kustendil. It was a great pleasure for the guests to dive into the world of the children’s games, the food, the clothing, the customs and the jewelry all the way up to the spiritual world of the ritual called “baene” as symbolism and magic.

“The very attitude towards the past and to what is happening today seems to form a feeling for unity, faith, hope. In the modern cultural environment, the folklore can be presented in many ways – artistic, verbal, mythological-ritual,” said Mrs. Spasova, PhD.

“Preservation of the cultural heritage” was the topic of Slavolub Uzunovich’s presentation who is from the Student’s Cultural Center Nis. Professor Uzunovich touched on many important issues such as “How to protect our cultural heritage?“. He emphasized on the importance of the pedagogues who teach folklore to children. He stated that the medias also have a big impact because they influence the attitude towards these tradutions, they inform and educate, they help form the taste of a person. The organisation of these folklore festivals, and of course, the job of the cultural centers, despite the fact that the state does not support them enough, are the key for the preservation of the folklore. We would add that the work of non-governmental organizations contributes too for the preservation and promotion of this cultural and historical treasure.

Milena Lubenova, Chief Assistant, PhD and Head of the National Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage within the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, shared the importance of such forums, and above all, how vital it is to have more active connection between the scientifical domains and the cultural community centers as guardians and promotors of our cultural heritage.

Boika Mileva from “Future for Meshtitsa” association shared that for her the two days of the Forum felt like “a feast for the soul”.

Ivo Raichev, an online visitor, was impressed by the presentation of Prof. Slavolub Uzunovich and intrigued by the history, meaning and symbolism of the traditonal Bulgarian dance called “horo”.

Between our virtual guests there were also students from 11th grade of the Vocational High School of Clothing and Tourism “Svety Ivan Rilski” Pernik.

We could list many more great impressions which motivate us to continue our work with passion and enthusiasm. The fact that one hour after the online session ended our participants were still discussing and sharing differents points of view of the topics covered in the forum, makes us proud of the success of this event. The only thing that we regret for is that we weren’t able to meet personally with our colleagues from Nis because of the COVID-19 restrictions.

This article has been translated by Ines Bozhilova, 14 years old volunteer of AKSELS.

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AKSELS receives a prestigious prize

Lilly Georgieva and Petya Dimitrova with the prestigious award

We are very excited to announce that AKSELS has been awarded with a plaque and Certificate for entire and quality implementation of a project under the Erasmus + Programme, ESC. At a big conference on December 6th, our project CLEAN UP – part 2 was officially honored with the prestigious award presented by the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Mr. Nikolay Pavlov. We thank for the appreciation of the National Agency – Human Resources Development Center, and all those who supported us in this project, the volunteers from CLEAN UP 2, without whose dedication we would not have achieved this success, and the volunteers from CLEAN UP 1 who set the bar really high and obliged us to be more than excellent. Once again, one of the founders of AKSELS – Lilly Georgieva proved that she is an extremely good project designer and expert in their implementation. For her, this is the second such prize in this field. The first was for a project under the CBC Programme.

Deputy Minister Pavlov presents the award to Mrs Petya Dimitrova – manager of AKSELS.

The village of Meshchitsa should be proud of the CLEAN UP 2 success and still set a good example for other villages in Bulgaria!

Congratulations!

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YOUTH EXCHANGE “Heroes and monsters”

YOUTH EXCHANGE “Heroes and monsters”

This was one of the best youth exchanges I’ve been to. The selection of the participating countries was really good, as we were all SLAVS. From this project I understood how similar our culture and thinking is, despite us being in different countries. The topic of the exchange was about the movie industry. There was the big activity where we were divided into groups with the responsible task to make a script and shoot a movie. It was an amazing team building activity and everyone had a role of his choice. I will never forget how much our team laughed during the shootings.


The one thing I didn’t like about this project was that it was too short. However, in this short time I’ve created unforgettable moments, gained inspiration and met people with unique interests and talents.

Eva Boneva, 19 y, Gabrovo

Here you can see our movie 🙂 Enjoy!

 

I was on a project in Czech Republic from 24th to 30th June. The project was connected with video shooting, cutting and editing. It was really interesting for me as we were involved in many games and activities. For instance, we were given a map and had to go to different spots in the forest in order to collect straws in different colors. We used the collected materials as money so as to buy cast for the movie which we were to shoot. What is more, we were given the opportunity to design costumes which the actors in the movie could wear. We also had a press conference full of positive emotions. We could imagine ourselves in the roles of directors, production, cameramen, designers, script writers, sound masters and etc. We had such a great fun that all of us wished that we could stay there even more.

Lilly, 19 y, Razlog
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CALL FOR PARTNERS

Dear friends and partners,
We are preparing a Erasmus+ project for KA1 TC 26April deadline and we are looking for partners. We want to involve 9 countries and each organization should send 3 participants who are actively connected to the organization and involved in the work with youngsters belonging to disadvantaged situations. Already have Italy, Latvia and Greece.

More information you can find here STORM 4.0_Call for partners.

If you are interested please fill Partner Identification Form_STORM 4 and send it to office@aksels.bg.

If you have questions do not hesitate to contact us.

WE ARE WAITING FOR YOU 🙂

 

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YOUNG LEADERS “INTERNATIONAL MEETING”

AKSELS is pleased to announce the start of the project YOUNG LEADERS INTERNATIONAL MEETING with a leading partner SOS EUROPE from Rome, Italy. The project aims to encourage young people’s participation in representative democracy and civil society, and to support the involvement and participation of young people and youth in the development, implementation and evaluation of policies by means of structured dialogue.

SOS_Europe_logoOne of the specific objectives is to promote the involvement of young people in the drafting or amendment of national laws that improve the condition of youth.

Please visit the project site http://www.soseuropa.it/start-the-survey/ and answer the two questions in the survey. The questions are available in 12 languages in the end of the site. You may answer in English or Bulgarian.

4 youths who have taken part in the survey will have the chance to go to Rome in October 2017 and take part in a 3-day international meeting with their peers to discuss the role of Europe and the future of youth.

 The project is funded under the Erasmus+ programme, KA3 Structural Dialogue.

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AKSELS IS LOOKING FOR 4 VOLUNTEERS

463052dad9377fe2445d3b1bfb5f62a3_XLWe are happy to inform you that AKSELS is looking for 4 motivated volunteers to participate in the project CLEAN UP! in Pernik, Bulgaria, from 1st March 2017 to 28th February 2018. The project activities will include cleaning a part of the river bed in the village of Meshtitsa, Pernik municipality, and planting new trees to strengthen the banks. The area will be maintained and beautified for the period in concern. The volunteers will have to create a local Prevention Strategy to stop local people from throwing out their house waste into the river and the banks.

The volunteers have to be:

  • sensitive to environmental issues;
  • sociable and ready to work with the local young and elderly people;
  • creative – to design eco promo materials and campaign;
  • conscience about eco life style – developing and taking care of their own eco vegetable garden;
  • nature lovers – to be ready to spend a couple of days in the fields with other youths in search of appropriate local plants suitable for replanting near the river;
  • ready to do handcrafts – work with natural and wood materials to produce protection constructions for the new plants and beautification of the area;
  • able to communicate in English;
  • ready to learn Bulgarian and make local friends.

If you are interested, please fill in the Application form AF_CLEAN UP! EVS 2016-2017 and send it to evs@aksels.bg as soon as possible.

GOOD LUCK!

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Herbs Festival 2015

AGENDA

HERBS FESTIVAL VILLAGE OF MLADEN – 4th July 2015

Location: Community center „Prosveta 1918”

Presenter: Atanas Bonchev – Nakata

10:00 – Official opening of the Festval

10:15 – Lecture and discussion with the herbalist Vladimir Boshnakov – grandpa Vlado

12:00 – Announcing the results from the Drawing Competition “The Enchantment of Enyovden””  – awards will be presented by Valeriya Dimovska

12:30 – Announcing a competition for weaving a wreath of wild flowers – Mrs. Tatyana Tsankova – Ethnologist and Director of the Museum House of Humor and Satire will assess the participants.

 

Location: Pensioners’ Club/ the square of the village of Mladen

14:30 – Workshop “Herbs and cuisine” – presenter Mrs. Desislava Dimitrova, SLOW Food Bulgaria

15:30 – Atelier for young, adventurous explorers „The life net“ – presenter Mrs. Antoaneta Kalenderova

16:30 – Atelier „Let’s move the beauty of nature at home” – demonstration of decoupage technique – Mrs. Rena Dimitrova

 

Location: The square of the village of Mladen

18:30 – Official Closing ceremony of the Festival

18:45 – Entertaining programme with:

  • Singing group „White necklace“ village of Mladen
  • Folklore singer Ivan Dyakov

N.B: If the weather conditions are not favourable all field events will take place in the Community center and/or in the Pensioner’s club.

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The HERBS FESTIVAL in the village of Mladen announces a Children’s Drawing Competition

TOPIC

The Enchantment of Enyovden

The competition aims at creating interest amongst children toward nature and its protection, natural way of life, getting to know the herbs in Bulgaria, provoking curiosity about legends related to folklore customs and sayings, and not at last – promoting creative development of the children.

REGULATIONS

The competition is individual. Eligible competitors are children aged up to 14. The participation is free.

The sizes of the drawings are minimum 20/30 cm, maximum 40/50 cm.

Each participant may submit only one drawing. Computer processed drawings ARE NOT ALLOWED.

Participants are divided into three age groups:

  • I age group up to 7;
  • II age group from 7 to 11;
  • III age group from 11 to 14.

There are no restrictions on the style, materials or drawing techniques.

The drawings will be accepted until 10 June 2015 /the post stamp is valid/ at the latest. Scanned drawings received by email will not be accepted.

On the back of the drawing it is OBLIGATORY to write:

Title of the drawing, name and family name, age of the author, the age group in which it will participate, city, country, address, telephone number and name of a parent, e-mail for contact.

The best selected drawings will be published on the facebook of the Herbs Festival in Mladen and on the website of www.aksels.bg .

SELECTION COMMITTEE

The Selection Committee consists of Bulgarian artists and experts who will assess the drawings and award the prizes.

The awarded participants will be informed personally by phone or e-mail.
The results will be announced on the festival’s facebook page after the award ceremony on 4th July 2015 in the village of Mladen.

PRIZES

Charterfor competitors at 1, 2 and 3 place in the competition.

Certificate for all children whose drawings have participated in the exhibition on 4 July within the Herbs Festival in the village of Mladen.

Special gifts for competitors at 1, 2 and 3 place in the competition, provided by the organizers.

Special award provided by ACEHLC.

ADDRESS

We expect your drawings at the following address:

Sofia 1000

P.O.Box 942

/for the Children’s Drawing Competition/

ACEHLC, in his role of the organizer, reserves its right to use the awarded drawings to popularize the Herbs Festival and its activities, provided that the names of the authors are published.

For more details please write to email: herbalfestival@aksels.bg

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AGENDA of the HERBS FESTIVAL

Chitalishte (Community Center):
10:00 Official opening
10:10 “Healthy way of life” – Dr. Verginia Nikolova ladyzone.bg
10: 50 “Herbs in Bulgaria”
11:40 Announcing results of the Writing Competitions
12:00 Presentation of the documentary Herbal Treasure  – meeting with the author Maria Valcheva  www.tvplus.bg

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HERBS FESTIVAL – 22 June 2013, village of Mladen

festival

AKSELS thanks to our partners from Credo Bonum Foundation
www.credobonum.bg/

credo

And to our media partners Radio Zorana.

http://zorana.bg/

zorana

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