Festival of the nations on Russia/ Krasnoyarsk Day.

Today is June 12th. On June 12th, 1990, Russia declared independence from the Soviet Union. Hence today is Independence Day in Russia. It seems to be the ubiquitous day for celebrations of all sorts here in Russia.  It is also the "Day of the City" in Krasnoyarsk (a little akin to the Moomba festival in Melbourne).  Curiously it also exactly two years since I was in Kellog for the Ket "Day of the River".  So what ever festival you need to celebrate in Russia, today is the most fashionable to celebrate it.

Last night we rang our Dolgan friend Yevgenia to try to catch up with her.  She let us know that today there would be a celebration for all of the ethnic nations living in Krasnoyarsk.  We were quite glad to find out, it would have been a shame to miss.  We arrived 20 minutes early before the festival started.  Various groups were putting up their generic yellow tents with the name of their people group on it; groups such as the Latvians, Ukrainians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Chuvash; the only three Siberian peoples represented were Buryat, Khakas and last but not least Evenkis.  When we arrived we noticed the chum shaped tent and made a bee-line for it.  Within a couple minutes we had developed a quick rapport with the Evenki people present.  Could they tell that we liked them?  Why were they so keen to reciprocate?  Perhaps they could see it in our eyes.  They pulled out a book as a gift, that they later sold to other people.  We hung around and chatted with them lots through the day.  It felt like we were somehow accepted in.

The Evenki organisers here in town flew in a bunch of young people from Tura in the north to perform Evenki dances and songs on the stage.  They were very impressive in their costumes.  I did feel sorry for these young people waiting to go on stage though- they had the thickest costume of any nation there, they were waiting in the sun in 34 degree heat, and where they come from it never gets that hot.

We made a couple of contacts that we hope to follow up on in the coming days and weeks.  We will also meet with another Evenki woman tomorrow, who just might be able to teach us the Evenki language.  We shall wait and see how things turn out.