Something Russian Festival -- Mogadore, OH



This evening Dave and I traveled to Mogadore for the 43rd annual Something Russian Festival hosted by St. Nicholas Orthodox Church. We had driven past St. Nicholas on our way home from the Barberton Mum Festival two weeks ago and Dave's interest was piqued by the sign in front of the church advertising the festival.

The festival ran today from 10-9 and will run again tomorrow from 10-9. When we arrived around 7:00 p.m. we were both in awe of how many cars were already parked. This is a pretty large event between church members, visitors and regular festival attendees. The festival is divided into several areas -- there are two food tents outside, food and traditional items in the banquet center, a cultural tent and church tours. 


St. Nicholas Orthodox Church.

Dave in the Matroshka doll cut-out. Matroshka dolls are the wooden nesting dolls which are easily recognizable and large cut-outs of them decorate the outside of the festival.





Just as we arrived the St. Nicholas Russian Dancers were preparing to take the stage in the Cultural Tent. We decided to eat dinner first, but we popped into the cultural tent after to check out their performance. 





Inside the banquet center at the Russian Imports table there were various Matroshka dolls for sale as well as decorative items modeled after them such as magnets, thimbles and earrings. 








At the Pysanky table there were demonstrations of this ancient Eastern European art of egg decorating. The pysanky eggs are incredibly beautiful and are for sale as well as the supplies necessary to create your own pysanky if you're interested in pursuing the process at home.






There were several church members at the pysanky table working on projects and available to answers questions.





The banquet hall was decorated with tapestries depicting Russian items. I was really impressed with how well the Festival was put together and how well the Russian culture was displayed throughout all of the details.





For dinner we enjoyed some Potato Pancakes (available from an outdoor tent). 



Kvass, a fermented beverage made from rye. Apparently it's pretty popular in Russia, but we hadn't quite acquired the taste for it. It was described by the Something Russian Festival as "7-up that tastes like rye bread" and they were correct about that.




We also had peroghis, everyone's favorite dumpling filled with mashed potatoes and cheese. 




While still in the banquet center we filled out tickets for the Russian Raffle. Dave liked this handmade bottle hold (which came with the Stolichnaya) the best. 




Also in the banquet center was an alcove with Russian tea and books. 





Once we were done in the banquet center we went back to the cultural tent and caught the end of the St. Nicholas Russian Dancer's performance. 





To round out our experience at the Something Russian Festival we stepped into the church. There were several church members available to answer questions and we had a lovely conversation with someone about the recent work which had been done inside the church and about the differences between the iconography in Russian and Greek Orthodox churches.










St. Nicholas, the patron saint of the parish.




We are not the type of people to skip dessert, but we did take our Poonchki and Baklava to go. We're familiar with Pączki which are served on Mardi Gras (a Polish doughnut with sweet filing) and thought maybe they would be similar to the Poonchki, because the names are pronounced similarly. However, the Poonchki were not filled doughnuts, but rather fried and tossed in powdered sugar. Namely, everything you'd like to have in a piece of fried dough.




We also purchased some baklava to go. I could wax poetic about baklava all day, it has a special place in my heart and this baklava did not disappoint. 





Overall, we were incredibly impressed with the Something Russian Festival. We weren't entirely sure what to expect, but it was a large, well organized event. Everyone was having a wonderful time eating traditional Russian food and partaking in the culture. The volunteers were friendly and knowledgeable.

I would suggest bringing cash to this event, but Dave noticed card readers at a few of the locations, most notably in the dinner line. This was a fun night out for us, especially on a week day.

My rating for the Something Russian Festival:



Comments

  1. Very well written! Glad you had a good time - please come back and see us next year - the first Tues/Wed of October!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Today's Bride Wedding Show -- Cleveland, OH

Velvet Tango Room -- Cleveland, OH

Afternoon Tea at Coquette Patisserie -- Cleveland, OH