An unusual weekend devoted to the unique Japanese culture and colourful traditions of the land of the rising sun took place in the Regional Landscape Park, as a part of events devoted to the year of Japan in Ukraine.
During the weekend, the visitors to Feldman Ecopark were able to learn a lot of new and interesting information from the history, life and spiritual heritage of Japan, where a very popular and important holiday – Culture Day – is celebrated in the beginning of November. The entertainers in folk Japanese costumes or traditional dresses of grandees offered everyone to take part in thematic entertaining programme “Banzai!” By taking part in cheerful competitions, like “Samurai Training,” “A Japanese Name for Each Participant,” children and adults competed in coping with chopsticks and kendama, the classic Japanese toy, demonstrated acumen when solving Sudoku and displayed wit in the comic competition of Japanese interpreters.
Creative people were able to demonstrate their skills by taking part in the game “Japanese Impromptu-Theatre.” And the master classes, of course, were devoted to the traditional Japanese art of origami during the weekend.
Moreover, the visitors were able to make their contribution to the creation of the installation on the central path symbolizing the struggle for peace. They attached paper cranes created according to origami traditions as a reference to the cranes created by Sadako Sasaki, a girl who died from leukemia caused by Hiroshima bombing. She became the international symbol of rejection of nuclear war.
One of three cherry trees planted recently near the central entrance of Feldman Ecopark is devoted to Sadako Sasaki. The other sakura trees are devoted to the great director Akira Kurosawa and a popular writer Haruki Murakami, who made a great contribution to the popularization of Japanese culture around the world.
“Feldman Ecopark respects all traditional cultures of the world, and during the year of Japan in Ukraine, we definitely wanted to pay attention to the cultural heritage of this wonderful country and its people. We have selected the first weekend of November specifically, because on November 3, Japan celebrates the national holiday of Bunka no Hi or Culture Day,” the director of Feldman Ecopark Andrii Roshchupkin told.
Moreover, on Sunday, November 5, the special surprise was prepared to the visitors who were born in October – the B-day Holiday. They were able not only to celebrate their birthdays again, but also to create a crown as a souvenir and to get other presents.
