On 23 May, Traditional Cyril and Methodius Readings were held at the Faculty of Philology of Voronezh State University. The Readings were dedicated to The Day of Slavic Literature and Culture, celebrated in many Slavic countries on 24 May.
A lot of people took part in scientific Cyril and Methodius Readings. Among them were the rector of Temple of Saint Methodius and Cyril, archpriest Andrey Izakar, the rector of the Temple of Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki, Hegumen Timofey (Podobedov), the Head of the Department of Cultural Studies of the Faculty of Philosophy and Psychology in VSU Svetlana Simonova, the Head of the Department of Slavic Philology of the Faculty of Philology in VSU Gennadiy Kovalev and a founder of The Khovansky Foundation Andrey Lazarev.
Another interesting part of the event was Creative Cyril and Methodius Readings, prepared by students from the Faculty of Philology. First year students performed a staging of The Parable of the Prodigal Son in Old Church Slavonic, second year students performed a staging in a Southern Russian dialect, and third year students presented translations of Russian poets of the Silver Age in Polish. First, third, and fourth year students performed The Fable about the Old Man, His Son and the Donkey in Serbian.
Students Vera Chetverikova, Olga Tsapkova, Ekaterina Strelnikova, and Anastasia Davidenko sang in Ukrainian, Polish, and Slovak. Students from the Foreign Department of the Philological Faculty rendered a song in Polish. Poems in Serbian were read by Maria Lapygina and poems in Macedonian were read by Valeria Golubenko, Marina Pegusova, and Anastasia Antonova.
Learning Slavic languages is an important part of a philologists’ professional development, and the annual organisation of Cyril and Methodius Readings is a great opportunity to bring its research and creative aspects together.
