Russian Maslenitsa 2018

The Cleveland Russian Cultural Garden hosted its 4th annual Maslenitsa celebration at the Rockefeller Greenhouse.

Maslenitsa has its origins in both pagan and Christian traditions. In Slavic mythology, Maslenitsa is a celebration of the imminent end of the winter. It has been compared to Mardi Gras or Carnival.
The event was also a fund-raiser put on by the Russian Cultural Garden committee.

The Russian Cultural Gardens is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization dedicated to promoting the Russian Heritage and Russian cultural influence in America. The Russian Cultural Garden has a prominent goal of building the Russian Cultural Garden as a part of the Cultural Gardens of Cleveland in the Rockefeller Park. 

The event was full of music, games, shopping, auction and Russian food and drink.

Photos and videos of Maslenitsa 

Babushka Contest Entrant

Top 5 list of groups visited in January

Always interesting to see which pages get the most visits in a month.

The Top 5 groups with the most visitors in January 2018 on ClevelandPeople.Com were: Indian, Polish, Chinese, Lithuanian and Hungarian.

Kurentovanje Parade 2018 in Cleveland

The 6th annual Cleveland version of the most popular carnival in Slovenia - Kurentovanje - was a weeklong event featuring dinners, a dance party, bocce tournament and more. But the highlight was the annual Kurentovanje parade followed by the festival celebration in the Slovenian National Home.


We have 2 videos of the Parade - a short one and a longer one.  Follow this link:

Kurentovanje parade videos and pictures


The Krampus and other scary creatures, especially the Kurents, are supposed to scare winter away.

The Kurentovanje Parade units gathered in a freezing drizzle at St. Martin de Porres High School gym. Here is a short video of the St Martin de Porres High School drum line and dancers warming up before the parade.

See more of the St Martin de Porres High School drum line and dancers 

Prince and Princess of Kurentovanje - Philip Monreal and Abigail Bartlett

Congratulations to the Prince and Princess of Kurentovanje 2018 in Cleveland - Philip Monreal and Abigail Bartlett.

Folklorna Skupina Kres dancers at Cleveland Kurentovanje 2018

The 6th annual Cleveland version of the most popular carnival in Slovenia - Kurentovanje - was a weeklong event featuring dinners, a dance party, bocce tournament and more. But the highlight was the annual Kurentovanje parade followed by the festival celebration in the Slovenian National Home.

One of the highlights was the performance by Folklorna Skupina Kres who performed two dances at the 2018 Kurentovanje festival.

Here's one of the dances.

See the other dance and lots of pictures of Folklorna Skupina Kres 

Bob and Dan's Adventure to the PC Graveyard

Geek Blast from the Past

Computer techies (OK, geeks) Bob Coppedge and Dan Hanson used to take groups to various places of interest to computer professionals (OK, other geeks). They called it Bob and Dan's Excellent Adventures.

This video from 2004 was just unearthed from some old DVDs. This was a different adventure as Bob and Dan visited a cemetery and visited the graves of some old technology - from dBase to Win 95 before facing their own demise.

Watch it if you dare

.

John Perry Barlow - RIP

John Perry Barlow was a founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a strong believer in cyber liberties, He co-founded the EFF in 1990 with John Gilmore and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet civil liberties and to champion free expression and privacy online.

He passed away Wednesday at the age of 70.
Barlow was also a lyricist for the Grateful Dead and co-wrote songs with the Dead's Bob Weir such as Mexicali Blues and Cassidy.

I got to meet Barlow at Comdex in Las Vegas in 2002 when he was a panelist debating Internet civil liberties.

Also on the panel was Richard Stallman who launched the GNU Project, founded the Free Software Foundation, developed the GNU Compiler Collection and GNU Emacs, and wrote the GNU General Public License.

I had heard that Stallman in particular was not easy to get along with but both men were very gracious in sharing their time after the debate in discussing issues with a geek from Cleveland.

These lyrics from Barlow's Mexicali Blues seem fitting today:

Is there anything a man don't stand to lose 

When the devil wants to take it all away

Cherish well your thoughts, keep a tight grip on your booze

'Cause thinking and drinking are all I have today

RIP John Perry Barlow

Making Happy Chinese New Year Dumplings

On January 31st, the Confucius Institute at Cleveland State University held the first workshop in the Chinese Culture Workshop Series; making dumplings to celebrate the approaching Chinese Spring Festival which will be held on February 16, 2018 and Chinese New Year Celebration which will be held on February 24, 2018.

Chinese cuisine enjoys worldwide prestige. Dumplings, are a traditional, mouth- watering comfort food, which make dumplings attractive to students on campuses and citizens around the world.

See photos and more from the Chinese Dumpling class