Saturday, December 20, 2008

A Week Full of Emotions




It has been a week full of emotions, songs, dances, music and rejoicing. It all began on December 15th with the making of children’s Christmas sticks and Christmas loaves, combining the 100 year anniversary of the community center with the components of the Christmas and New Year holidays. The day continued with the opening of and exhibit of local artists, and concluded with a magnificent concert by the Trakia Folk Ensemble from Plovdiv.
The second day of the celebration was also quite interesting and instructive. The children from the kindergartens in town had the opportunity to be introduced to Mary’s Puppet, a production of The Puppet Theater of Stara Zagora. The evening continued with Egocentric café-theater, As a Bulgarian, Am I an Idiot?
For lovers of wedding music, The Young Thracians Orchestra performed a one hour concert which a number of young local singers took part in. Earlier in the day, the kids were glad to meet with Santa Clause in the community center.

With the oncoming of the big date the events started to become progressively more thematically intense. An exhibit featuring local photographer Nedelcho Stoikov called The Community Center Through the Years had opened, the event finished with a large variety of colors and patterns as well as the rich sounds and voices of the students from Luben Karavelov High School in Plovdiv.
The amateur variety program of community centers from the Municipality of Rakovski was rich with local talent. The Hristo Botev Community Center from the Village of Stryama were represented by their always-dominant “Stryaman Brides”, and the young dancers from Enlightenment Community Center in the Village of Belozem brightened the audience with the rhythms of Cha-Cha and Samba.
The Slav Boikin Folklore Ensemble from Community Center "St.st. Cyril and Methodius" was in rather larger form due to the addition of participants from almost every incarnation of the group that has passed through the community center over the years.
The culmination of the week was on December 20, 2008, when the 100-year anniversary of the community center was marked with a concert by The Pirin Folk Ensemble from Blagoevgrad, a bonfire, and fireworks featuring the kukeri group from Vasil Levski Community Center in the Village of Kliment and the kukeri group from Community Center "St.st. Cyril and Methodius" in Rakovski.

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