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Children's festival "Children to Rijeka 2009"
Czech Beseda Rijeka organized and hosted the second festival "Children to Rijeka." It was a part of the celebration of St. Vid, the city of Rijeka patron saint. The idea behind the festival is to introduce and befriend the children from Czech societies from different parts of Croatia with the children from folklore groups and schools from the Primorsko-goranska County.
This year, 178 children participated in the festival. They came from Czech besedas Kaptol, Bjelovar and Rijeka, and folklore groups from Matulji, Jelenje and Delnice. There were also children from Aleksandra Jug Matiæ music school, elementary school Pehlin and elementary school Podmurvice where Czech language classes are taking place.
Mrs. Branka Renko Silov, head of the City department of education, opened the festival. She expressed her admiration for the small but very agile Czech Beseda Rijeka that conceived and managed the new festival, bringing together children from all over Croatia. She also mentioned how fascinating it is that the Czech people of Rijeka managed to build the great structure of T. G. Masaryk Czech Home in Rijeka. This home will not serve only to members of the Czech community, but also to the City of Rijeka.
When the children took over the stage, their songs and narrations reminded of their home towns, showed their love for home and heritage, and sent messages to all the world's children. It was amazing how the children understood each other whether they sang in Czech or Croatian language or in one of Croatian dialects. Little dancers in beautiful traditional costumes showed how old customs and traditions can be preserved through dance and songs. They performed traditional Czech dances and those from different part of Croatia.
The end of the program was really impressive. All the children came together on stage and sang the "anthem of Rijeka" called "Najdraža Rijeko" (Rijeka dearest). They sang with such enthusiasm that the whole audience joined them in the song.
After the program the children played together, met new friends, and their teachers talked about future cooperation, over dinner and snacks
