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.
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