CELEBRATIONS, Part II

A few weeks ago we wrote about the picnic and branch celebration. Today is about the celebration that evening, which was a birthday party for the city.

Thanks to Elder Fitzgerald (below) from Pleasant Grove for most of these pictures. We ran out of room on our camera that night and didn't get all the pictures we wanted, so we took some off his camera.

One of the main streets in the city was blocked off and people walked wherever they wanted. There were tables set up along the side with people selling a variety of crafts, food, art, whatever.

We started by going to one of many free concerts. The one our group picked was jazz--we thought of you, Brad. We were told they were going to play for three hours!

When we had enough of standing in the sun, we headed to another part of town, back down the same street, but the street was nearly empty. A few minutes later a parade came by. Unlike the parade we saw on Victory Day, there was no military or government involvement, just people having a good time. Note all the balloons--Russians of all ages L.O.V.E. balloons.

We're guessing that many of the "entries" were advertising for various companies . . .

or a martial arts academy

Even a marching band!

 

 

There were probably over 100 balloons released right here

We saw quite a few people on stilts throughout the evening

  This is the city flag, kind of a coat of arms

After the parade was over we went to a big park in the city. We've noticed the top of a Ferris wheel peeking over the tops of the trees when we've ridden by on the bus, but didn't know what else was there. It's a full-blown amusement park!

The view from the top of the Ferris wheel

Unfortunately, Elder Fitzgerald's camera took a nosedive off the top of the Ferris wheel, so we don't have pictures of the rest of the rides. They had lots of different kinds, all in a very small area. Some were like the Magic Carpet and Pirate's Ship at Lagoon, others were just as wild or more so. There were also some calmer rides like bumper cars for younger kids. All the people in our group seemed to be having fun--when they weren't sick from all the motion.

We understand there was a fantastic fireworks show. Since it was at midnight (only in part due to how late it stays light), we missed it.

This week's Russianism:
Since there is no stake in Siberia, there is no stake patriarch. Once a year a Russian-speaking patriarch comes from the U.S. to several areas without stakes. Patriarch Rogers was a mission president in Saint Petersburg (1993-96) and also taught Russian at BYU until he retired a few years ago, so he speaks fluent Russian. Last week he came to Novokuznetsk for a couple of days and gave 7 blessings, one of which was his 2,200th blessing, and he's only been a patriarch for 5 years! One night he gave a fireside at our apartment. It was very well attended--24 people is more than we had at church today. It was rather cramped trying to fit everyone in. We ran out of chairs and some of us sat on stools or the floor

Everyone who came (except the lady behind the camera)

Patriarch Rogers is the one directly below the picture of Christ

Afterward we had Dave's wonderful cinnamon rolls--always a BIG hit.