Church folklore festival

The photo shows the place where the practice takes place, the churchyard. Photo: Anastasia Ristova.

Categories: cultureheritageother

Organizers: The Ristov family, the main manager of the festival Dragi Ristov, with the help of Folklore Ensemble Buchim - Radovish.

Lokacation: Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Rakitec village, Konche municipality, North Macedonia (41.5443235316501, 22.42688927239804)

Where good practice takes place: outer space

About good practice

A description of the location

The Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is located in the small village of Rakitec. Rakitec is located in the central part of the municipality of Konche, which is located on the Smrdesh mountain at an altitude of 554 meters. The village is 6 kilometers north of the town center of Konche and 17 kilometers south of the town of Radovish.

The reason for the emergence of good practice

The village is quite neglected and abandoned. A large part of the village was renovated 4 years ago. The residents who are there are only elderly and old people. With this festival, the village gains new cultural significance, which is why there are more visits and interest. Another reason is the conservation of folklore and church tradition. In addition to its religious significance, the church also represents cultural significance and another type of public space, where people can socialize and spend time after a religious ceremony.

The operation of best practice

The festival starts at the initiative of an elderly resident of the village, a pensioner who takes care and maintains all the religious buildings in the village. In recent years, people only go to church if it's a holiday and people go, light a candle, pray and go home. As a citizen who maintains these religious buildings, he initiates a wonderful initiative. He invites a folklore ensemble that plays Macedonian traditional dances and songs in the church yard the evening before the religious holiday "Mala Bodorica.". Every summer, the number of participants in the festival increases, and slowly it becomes an international festival, which is also attended by participants from neighboring countries. People are enthusiastic about it, and every year in a row there are too many visitors both in the church yard itself and outside. With this, he showed that the church should not be a place only for those who are believers and want to perform their rituals, but he showed that the church is a place where everyone is welcome and it is a place where all people are equal and the same. In addition to the holiday, he always makes sure that all the people receive drinks and delicious monastery dishes, prepared by volunteer cooks from the village. For the implementation of this festival, preparations are made that last almost the whole year, such as maintenance of the park and greenery, repairs and renovations, etc. The church itself and the seating areas around it were restored, as they were on the verge of collapse. The entire renovation took quite a long time; the buildings around the church were demolished and new seating areas were built. The entire building material and also the seating equipment are donations from the villagers and emigrants abroad. The entire initiative is supported by his entire family, volunteers from the village itself, and the help of the folklore ensemble. The main goal and idea of ​​the organizer of this festival is to extend it to all religious facilities in the village and to have such festivals throughout the year, for every holiday.

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