May 25, 2005: The Festival of Health, Spiritual and Physical Culture was opened in Taganrog on May 20, 2005 at the open-air space of Krasny Kotelshchik House of Culture. The Alphabet known today as Cyrillic was created in IX century by two scholars of Solun, the brothers Cyril and Methodius, to promote the Bible in Bulgarian, Russian and other Slavic Languages. The Bulgarian Alphabet then was adopted by other Slavic Nations. The two brothers served as missionnairs for the cause of a United Europe, and were canonized (declared Saints) both by the Catholic and the Orthodox Church. Moreover, they have been officially promoted to Patronizing Protectors of Europe.
The organization committee tried to combine cultural and sports events - the Festival, a public prayer "For starting a good deed" and the opening of the 13th Don Region sports and athletics days. Groups of artists and sportsmen of Taganrog prepared an interesting entertainment program, aiming at uniting the amateur art activities with the most spectacular sports. The festivities and competitions continued for three days and on Sunday, May 22, 2005, the city of Taganrog honored the winners.
After the grand opening of the Festival, the guests from the German partner city of
Badenweiler, representatives of 43 territories of Rostov Oblast gathered at the Alferaki Palace. Galina Krupnitskaya, Director of Taganrog Local Lore Museum guided the tour of exhibited ancient books and icons and then, a theatralized performance dedicated to the Days of Slavic Writing and Culture was held.
Youth Theater of Nonna Malygina, the Ogonki, Municipal choir LIK and the orchestra of Gurevich tried to recreate this legendary period of time, when the Saint Brothers Cyrill and Methodius founded the basics of the Old Slavic writing. Motets, old dances, costumes of the early and late Middle Age, appearance of the Russian Empress Elizabeth Petrovna - all this brought the viewers closer to the great moments in Russian history.
Mayor of Taganrog Nikolay Fedyanin told in his speech that Taganrog has what to be proud of. In Taganrog lived remarkable historical, cultural and sports figures. The City community has to be in close cooperation with Russian Orthodox Church to realize the spiritual potential in education of the new generation.
The subject of spirituality (dukhovnost') was continued by Father Nikon, Senior Priest at the Birth of Our Lady temple. He remarked that thanks to the spiritual exploit of Cyrill and Methodius, the Slavs had an opportunity of communicating with God in their native language. This also contributed a lot to popularizing the literacy in Kiev, the early seat of Russian Christianity.
In his address, Mayor of
Badenweiler Karl-Eugen Engler stressed the importance of extending the cultural relations with Taganrog in a way more global process by building a cultural bridge between Russian and Westeuropean civilizations, and he ended his speech with Russian words "Da Zdravstvuet Taganrog!" (Long Live Taganrog!).