The Center for Tatar Culture MIRAS has successfully performed at the international celebration of the municipality of Notre-Dame-de-Grace in Montreal

August 30, 2018

The residents of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, one of the most densely populated and multilingual municipalities of Montreal, gathered for the seventh time at the annual NDG Intercultural Festival, which took place on the 26th of August.

The holiday unites representatives of immigrant diasporas under one roof, so that they share their cultural wealth with each other and with all the residents  of the city. This time, the flags of China, South Korea, Egypt, Syria and Iran coexisted with the united pavilion of Latin America, which was decorated with a whole bouquet of national banners.

The Center for Tatar Culture MIRAS traditionally introduced two Russian regions, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan. According to the organizers, the team of MIRAS made a sensation by  the quality of the presentation and the level of performance.

Mini-pavilion MIRAS  really  was the most colorful and representative: festive suits and traditional clothes, household items, national instruments, books and booklets, a map and posters, traditional Tatar dishes offered for tasting – everything caused questions and admiration for the guests of the holiday.

The concert program of MIRAS was  the most colorful and professional. It included the dance “Burzianochka” (Alsu Ulmasheva), and the medley of songs in Tatar (Adel Usmanov and Eric Ellingsen), the festive Tatar dance (Alsu Ulmasheva, Zilya Mirgalieva, Svetlana Dogadkina , Adel Usmanov). From the first minutes of the program, a whisper passed through the crowd of spectators: “How beautiful!”, And many could not resist and danced to the beat of wonderful Tatar and Bashkir melodies.

During the holiday, each of the MIRAS members managed to perform in the role of lecturer, guide and hospitable host, because the questions were  raining: where the Tatars and Bashkirs live, what they eat, what language they speak, how many of them in the world, how  kubyz sounds, is it difficult learn the language, how to wear a skullcap, how to make a chak-chak …

Again our flags were in the center of attention, and the MIRAS Center presented not only its republics and introduced new friends to the culture, cuisine and tourist potential of Bashkortostan and Tatarstan, but also made new friends: representatives of political parties, heads of various NGOs and cultural centers .

One of the meetings will be remembered especially for our children:  Minister of Transport of Canada, Canadian Parliament deputy from Notre-Dame-de-Grâce / Westmount district, Marc Garneau stopped at the  MIRAS  mini-pavilion. He is primarily an outstanding engineer, military officer and an astronaut who made three flights from the center of NASA. A photo with one of the outstanding Canadian citizens will complement the album “How I spent the summer,” and our schoolchildren will have something to tell their classmates at the beginning of the new school year.

And MIRAS has its own plans for its “new school year”, so that flags, suits and ornaments are not threatened to lie in the chests. We are waiting for new meetings and new wonderful events!