One wonders… is Cossack attitude inborn or is it taught? I, for one, vote for it being part of one’s being… that is, you “get it through the tittie”. That’s not only true of Cossacks, it’s true of all the Orthosphere peoples… be they Greeks, Armenians, Copts, Ethiopians, Russians, Serbs, or Hillbilly Ossetians (don’t mess with ‘em, y’ hear; they DO know how to take care of themselves, they proved that in the recent war). We have not only a religion, we have a culture that comes wrapped indissolubly around it. That’s why it’s so difficult for newbies to “get it right”… it doesn’t come out of a book, “it comes through the tittie”. A whole new world has to be born in a convert’s soul to receive the Truth… which means that they have to walk away from the whole lot that they once believed in. They’re not doing that… ergo, they’re not truly converting. Sad, ain’t it? However, for how much longer can we afford to tolerate posturing semi-converted Anglicans amongst us (I know real Anglicans… they don’t have the hangups that the konvertsy have, trust me on that one)?
You can have the books or you can have the iaias and babas… that’s what on offer… I think that you know where I stand…
Here’s a three-minute vid on English on a contemporary Russian Cossack school. It’s the real deal… even if Rod Dreher doesn’t like Cossacks. I say, if I had to choose to have the Cossacks or Rod Dreher at my back, I’d choose the Cossacks. The Cossacks are loyal to a fault… Dreher changes his opinion more often than he changes his gotchies. One of these things is NOT like the other!
During the Easter season, real Orthodox go out to the cemeteries and visit the graves of their loved ones. We tend the graves and lay symbolic offerings of food and flowers on them (often, Easter eggs). However, on Easter and during Bright Week, we can’t offer Pannikhida, the first opportunity is the first Monday after Bright Week. Since many monasteries keep Monday as a day of abstinence, the custom has arisen of celebrating Radonitsa (Day of Rejoicing) on the Second Tuesday after Easter. Mind you, you can lay offerings on a grave on Easter and Bright Week (we certainly did), but you can’t offer Pannikhida. In the above image, people in Minsk are visiting family graves, offering a toast, and giving due respect. Radonitsa isn’t “canonical”… it’s a “people’s feast”… the Church didn’t decree it, the people just did it. Now, if some would just get their long noses out of books…
On Saturday, Denmark’s Emmelie Charlotte-Victoria de Forest won the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 before an international TV audience of around 125 million, winning the annual competition with a barefoot performance backed by flutes and drums. The 20-year-old won with the song Only Teardrops, competing against contestants from 25 other countries in a final held in Malmö in southern Sweden, scoring an overall 281 points. Eight out of the 39 participating countries gave the Danish contender the highest-possible score of 12 points. Russia’s Dina Garipova took fifth place, singing What If, scoring 174 points. She received top scores from two countries… Latvia and Estonia.
19 May 2013
******
Dina Garipova
______________________________
RussiancosmonautsPavel Vinogradov and Aleksandr Misurkin wished singer Dina Garipova success and victory at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, Sweden. Vinogradov said in a transmission from the International Space Station (ISS), “Our hearts ache for Dina Garipova, who represents our country at Eurovision”. Misurkin added, “We wish that our compatriot wins; she has beautiful voice, and we hope that she’ll win”. The Eurovision final kicked off at the Malmö Arena on Saturday evening. The 58th annual Eurovision song contest is underway in Malmö, Sweden. Russia’s Dina Garipova has already sung her soulful ballad What If. bookmakers consider Garipova, 22, who became Russia’s entry at Eurovision after winning the popular “Voice” television show last year, as one of the favourites at the contest, although Denmark’s Emmelie de Forest with Only Teardrops is still on top of the most-likely winner list.
Singers from 26 countries began battling it out on Saturday night for the crown of glitzy pop in the Eurovision Song Contest, returning this year to the homeland of ABBA, the Swedish band it propelled to global superstardom. One of them is Russian Dina Garipova. Bookmakers are tipping Denmark’s entry, 20-year-old Emmelie De Forest with her song Only Teardrops, to take out the competition comfortably. Other hot contenders for the title include Norway, the Ukraine, Russia, and Azerbaijan. The 26 countries competing in Saturday’s final are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the Ukraine, and Britain. The show, one of the world’s longest-running television programmes, landed in the city of Malmö on Sweden’s southern coast after Loreen (Lorine Zineb Nora Talhaoui) won the contest last year in Azerbaijan with her dance track Euphoria. Former ABBA members Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus together with Swedish DJ and producer Avicii (Tim Bergling) composed the opening act; Swedish singer Sarah Dawn Finer will belt out the ABBA classic The Winner Takes It All during the three-hour programme.
On May 18, the popular Eurovision Song Contest will have its finals, which, this time, take place in the Swedish city of Malmö. 26 participants have already made it to the finals, and one of them is Russian Dina Garipova. Some people estimate Garipova’s chances to win as high. Amongst other participants with good chances, they name Emmelie De Forest from Denmark, Margaret Berger from Norway, Zlata Ognevich from the Ukraine, Farid Mammadov from Azerbaijan, and Alyona Lanskaya from Belarus. Belarusian singer and TV host Georgi Koldun is a big-time fan of his compatriot Alyona Lanskaya, and he said, “The finals of the contest will most likely be a hard battle. It’s quite hard to predict who’ll win in the end, because the singers who made it to the finals are all very talented. Their songs are quite remarkable, and each of them has their own distinctive manner of performing”.
Dina Garipova decided that she‘d wear the same romantic pink dress in the finals in which she sang in the semifinals. However, some of the spectators found this costume a bit “sugary”. Others, on the contrary, liked it, because, as they say, in this dress Dina strikingly resembles Princess Madeleine of Sweden (Duchess of Hälsingland and Gästrikland). Meanwhile, Dina doesn’t care what people think of her dress. She just likes it and feels comfortable in it. Unlike many modern singers, Dina doesn’t move in tune with her song on stage. She just stands and sings, because she wants to draw the listeners’ attention, firstly, to the song itself. The song that Dina chose for the Eurovision contest is What If. Its main message is that people should unite to make life better. In a VOR interview, Dinasaid, “I’ll try to sing this song with all my soul. I think that the songs’ authors put a very important message into it, and I’d like to get this message across to the audience”.
According to Eurovision’s rules, the votes of TV viewers determine the winner. TV viewers from countries that take part in the contest can vote in the contest, but a viewer can’t vote for their country’s entrant. Besides, there’s also a jury at the contest. The choice of the winner is split between a 50 percent share from the TV viewers’ choice and a 50 percent share from the jury’s vote. Yuri Aksyuta, the musical director of Pervy Kanal, which is broadcasting the Eurovision contest in Russia, said, “As a rule, all the songs sang at this contest are new. the audience only knows a few of them befroehand. The majority of the contest’s participants are trying to surprise the public with some unusual performance or special effects. Dina Garipova just stands and sings her simple, but very nice, song”.
Dina herself said that she’s taking part in the contest not for the sake of winning, noting, “Of course, I’d like to win, but if I don’t, I won’t take it as the end of my life. There is a saying that I find very wise, ‘Believe in success, but be ready for the worst’. This year, many young singers are taking part in the Eurovision contest… everyone is talented in their own way. It’s very hard to guess what the public may like and what not, but I’d accept any decision of the public, whatever it may be”.
