Students of ASU Provide Media Coverage for Sabantuy Holiday

On May 13, 2018, people of Astrakhan celebrated Sabantuy, one of the most ancient ethnic holidays in our region. As usual, students of the Department of Philology & Journalism of Astrakhan State University prepared media materials to publish on the federal web site “National Accent”.

In April, our people already provided media coverage for Nowruz celebration.

Our students study at the School of Interethnic Journalism. This is a joint project by the regional office of the Guild of Interethnic Journalism and ASU.

The best creative teams and folk ensembles demonstrated their scene performance skills on various sites. A large delegation from the autonomous Republic of Tatarstan came to support people of Astrakhan. It was a real present for anyone to visit ethnic sites of people who reside in Tatarstan: Chuvash, Mordvins, Mari, Russian, and Tatar. Each exhibit could be watched and touched; one could learn much about customs and traditions of this or that ethnic community.

Our students highly appreciated performance of folk ensembles; they tried ethnic dishes and visited expositions and Kurash wrestling competitions.

The participants of the School of Interethnic Journalism and the students of ASU met managers of noncommercial organizations involved in ethnic issues; they conducted a survey related to ethnic traditions and development of ethnic brands in Astrakhan Region. The two co-organizers of the School (Ms. Dinara Mezhitova, Chief of the Astrakhan Office of the Guild of Interethnic Journalism, and Dr. Galina Belolipskaya, Head of the Chair of Theory & History of Journalism of ASU) gave consultations for our students that concerned the art of journalism and formation of a new approach to tourism. A skilled media coverage of ethnic projects depends on journalists’ professionalism directly.

In their interviews given to our students, the heads of the ethnic communities remarked that this holiday unites not just Tatars of Astrakhan, but people of any ethnic identity as well.

Alexandra Kalinina, CEO of the Astrakhan Regional Jewish Charity Fund “Hesed”: “We live in Astrakhan Region in close friendship. Our Jewish community and other associations believe that it is a must for us to take part in both common and ethnic holidays of our Region. It is very interesting and amazing. Doing that, we show our respect towards traditions of all the peoples who live in our multicultural land”.

Adlan Baygansurov, the Vainakh Chechen Cultural Organization in Astrakhan: “Even though we do not have such a holiday as Sabantuy, we wholeheartedly support all our friends when they celebrate their holidays, be it Tsagaan Sar, Nowruz, or Sabantuy”.

Sergey Tsoy, Chairman of the Khamke Idon Korean Cultural Center: “We live in a multiethnic city. The Tatarian community is our leader when it comes to arrangement of such large-scale events. We all celebrated Sabantuy all over Russia a year ago. The current holiday is also great. Any person of Astrakhan surely liked it; lots of guests came here”.

Let us remind that the holiday was arranged jointly by the Ministry of Culture & Tourism of Astrakhan Region, the Astrakhan Regional Research Center of Folk Culture, and the Duslyk NCO of Tatar Ethnic Culture; it was backed by the Administration of Bugulminsky District of the Republic of Tatarstan.