News
14/06/2021. The Day of Karelian Runes
June 10, 2021:
Admirers of unique Karelian runes gathered together in the National Library of Karelia to take part in the event which this year has been celebrated for the first time – the Day of Karelian Runes.
The audience listened to the lecture "Storytellers and Rune singers of Karelia" with musical accompaniment by the children's ensemble of folk music "Peregudki" of the Petrozavodsk Karl Rautio Musical college (heads Violetta Zhukova and Tatyana Ananyeva).
The guests listened to a story about talented Karelian storytellers and rune singers of rune-singing families, from the 18th century to the present day. There were audio recordings of epic songs, legends, yoiks, wedding songs and laments performed by Karelian storytellers of the 20th century from the phonogram archive of the Institute of Language, Literature and History of the Karelian Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Video materials presented by the National Archives of the Republic of Karelia and Culture Centre ”Premier” showed Karelian storytellers, monuments and memorable places, rune singers’ villages and historical reenactment of a traditional Karelian wedding.
The program of the event also included musical performance by the ensemble of folk music "Peregudki", memories by Violetta Zhukova, the Head of the ensemble, about the composer V. F. Pällinen, a member of the rune singers’ family from Kalevala. The audience saw that rune singing traditions are still alive and Karelian folklore is being presented by a new generation of residents of Karelia.
The Day of Karelian Runes at the National Library became a day of continuity of generations, ancestral memory, talent and spirituality of the Karelian people.
