"Back to Vevchani 2010" newspage [YiA project]

Faces behind masks - back to Vevchani...

Youth Exchange

“FACES BEHIND

MASKS - BACK TO

VEVCHANI 2010”

connects 60 young people from

different European countries (Poland, Czech Republic,

Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina,

Slovenia and Romania) and gives them an opportunity to par-

ticipate in Vevchani carnival and to discover different traditions

and customs around Europe.

The Carnival of Vevchani is being celebrating for more than

1.400 years on 13 and 14 January (on the eve of the last day of

the old and the first day of the New Year, according to the or-

thodox calendar). The main characteristics of the carnival are

the archaic rituals, the mysterious mask and the art of improv-

isation. The carnival can be described like two days of total

freedom, two days full of archaism, secretiveness and improv-

isation. According to its specific features, it differs from all

other carnivals in the world, because it’s a massive event in

which everybody from the village takes part.

So we will take part in carnival and we are in process of making

masks. Yesterday after long brainstorming we created few

teams, so Vevcani should be prepared for CRAZY HOSPITAL,

SCARY CAGE, WALKING CARDS, GLOBALIZATION and somebody

from Egypt.

If you are asking what is needed to create masks for Vevchani,

here is the answer:

black textile mater around 50 meters, white textile around 30

meters, rope 70 meters, colors for painting, white strong pa-

pers 55, toys, bandage, toilet paper, sweets, which looks like

pills, glasses without glass and more much more.

Sharing ideas, opinions and bodies...

Bosnian group traveled for 25 hours, it was in-

teresting and exhausting trip, but without any

problems. We arrived in Struga on Wednesday

afternoon. On arrival we come to beautiful

hotel in a great place and pretty cold

rooms. We are very pleased

about hotel management, our

host organization and partici-

pants. One of disadvantages

“might” be that there are a lot of

participants. Organizing workshops,

preparation for the main event and

choice of games are satisfying.

In the beginning, we would like to thank all Macedonian

people for your hospitality and warm welcome.

Not only organizers and participants are very kind, but also

people whom we meet in the city every day- they are very

open and helpful.We have to say that we are just ENCHANTED by the beauty

of this place. The scenery is magnificent! We cannot stop to

admire the view of the beautiful lake and the mountains. We

like the hotel as well - it is very comfortable. We are glad that

in the restaurant the traditional Macedonian dishes are

served. Your cuisine is really delicious and we enjoy trying

new tastes.We are very happy that through participation in your cele-

brations we can get to know your customs and traditions. We

cannot wait to see the parade! We are sure we will have a

lot of fun during this exchange... We already do

Polish enchanted...Bosnia talks...

Edition

2010

After long trip we finally arrived. Then we joined

the people. It was good and we had a lot of fun.

The people are nice. We are learning new things,

for example, we had workshops about different

traditions around Europe and we are doing differ-

ent exercises. And we enjoyed it. Macedonia is

nice country. We hope that we get chance to

come back in the future.

Serbians learning new things...

Slovenian group has 7 members. Our Blož has to go home un-fortunately already, but we are hoping that he will come back.Our first impressions: Struga is great, all Macedonia is greatand people are great. We are very satisfied with the ac-comodation, food and atmosphere here.The group on youth exchange is perfect and even thatwe are at the beginning of the exchange wemade strong and friendly connec-tions with others already.

Only minus for now is thatwe all have almost no sleep,but this is our fault. What wecan do if we do not want tomiss anything?

With one word SLOVENIA lovesMacedonia! We will be back!

...with love from SLOVEnia

This project has been funded with support from the

European Commission. This communication reflects

the views only of the author, and the Commission can-

not be held responsible for any use which may be

made of the information contained therein.

Discovering different traditionsand customs around Europe...

Morning comes. You open the curtains or

wake up already with the light, shining into

your eyes. It seems you had great party

yesterday and your lazy steps around the

living space, as well as silly faces in the

mirror, is just another approvement that

YOU HAVE HAD terrific exchanging time

yesterday. International collaboration, cre-

ativity, active citizenship (if we call it offi-

cially and European-ish), gaining and

sharing new ideas and overall experience.

But what’s so special about the customs and traditions?

As there’s really no difference if we put butter on bread

from right to left side or from left to right side... but it’s

all there - clicheic, usual and at the same time unique

pieces of cultural treasures hidden in everyday habits,

thinking and approaches to the world.

During the youth exchange “FACES BEHIND MASKS -

BACK TO VEVCHANI 2010” we had a chance to dive deep

into Serbian traditional dresses sorted by regions and

Christmas celebration customs (there’s saying “How you

will spend Christmas, you’ll do the whole year”, maybe

that’s why in Balkans are still very tight family relations?

As Christmas is truly a family “thing”), as well realizing

that there’s is no need to travel so far to Latin America

to enjoy the real spirit of Carnivals - as they can be as col-

orful and joyful and found in Europe - in Croatia, Bosnia

and Herzegovina, Romania and Slovenia, as we could see

in the presentations made by the participants.

Beside exploring the curiosities of Macedonian culture

and life in Struga, participation is numerous workshops,

we are heading and proceeding in exploring new things

about other countries and ourselves as well. So we’ll

keep our young spirit in that way...

How you would seduce a girl inyour country, and would you?

RomaniaThis country is definitely full

of pretty and hot-tempered

girls and... their admirers,

who don’t loose a single

chance to make an approach.

Performance in Details

MacedoniaSeems like money and se-

crets, whispered in the

ears of ladies are the

most appealing methods.

Slovenia

The country with green

lanscape and LOVE in the

name - and maybe that’s

why in this performance,

Love is understood in

more open-minded way.

Bosnia and

HerzegovinaThere’s nothing about

the girl... more about

testing fighting skills... in

big companies. But fi-

nally - who gets the girl?

PolandHarsh patriarchal tradi-

tions was strongly

shown in this example

of relationships, but still

there’s always space for

fairytales...

Czech Repub

lic

Czech team showed truly end-

less love to everybody, as in

this performance relations be-

tween man and woman can be

described definitely polygamic.

CroatiaThe doubts of willingness

to seduce the girl can be

refered to Croatian per-

formance. As it was shown

- brave enough to look, but

not so... to approach.