"Lismaprya" is an annual festival of Mordvin (Erzya) culture held in Lukoyanovsky District of Nizhny Novgorod Region. The event takes place at the "Kelmelismaleen lismapryaa" spring near the Lukash grove, next to the Lukoyanov–Pichingushi highway, where an ethnopark of the Erzya ethnic group is located. The festival is held every year on the last Saturday of July; the rest of the time the ethnopark is open to visitors freely, on any day and at any hour, and is used for school trips and recreation.[3] The ethnopark is also known as "Erzyan Mastor" and "Lismapryaa"; it was founded by Nikolay Ivanovich Anoshkin, director of the Museum of Erzya Culture in Lukoyanov, together with his son — the first wooden sculptures were installed in the summer of 2010, and the park itself opened in 2012, with the opening timed to coincide with that year's festival.[3][1]

Holding of the festival

In 2016, more than 1,000 people took part in the festival. Folklore groups "Umarina," "Selskiye Zori," "Yalgat," "Sumoryanochka," "Erzyanochka," "Argo," "Ryabinushka," "Selyanochka," "Chilisema," "Rodnichok," and "Serebryanye Napevy" performed on stage. The festival program includes an exhibition of decorative and applied arts, master classes, national sports games, a gala concert, and an awards ceremony; groups and craftspeople from the Republic of Mordovia and the Nizhny Novgorod and Penza Regions are traditionally invited to take part.[5] The chairman of the commission of the Public Chamber of Nizhny Novgorod Region on territorial development, Denis Moskvin, took part in the event.[1]

Significance

The festival is aimed at preserving the traditional culture of the Erzya — one of the Mordvin peoples who inhabited the territory of Nizhny Novgorod Region even before the arrival of Russian settlers. According to Denis Moskvin, Nizhny Novgorod Region is an example of a region where more than a hundred nationalities live side by side, and events like this help preserve cultural diversity not only in neighboring Mordovia but also within the Region itself. After the death of the park's founder, Nikolay Anoshkin, in 2021, the tradition of creating sculptures for the ethnopark was continued: in 2023, at a competition in his memory, carvers from the Nizhny Novgorod and Penza Regions and Mordovia carved new figures — Vedyava, the goddess of water, and Viryava, the patroness of the forest.[3] In 2012, the "Lismapryaa" festival was included in the program of events of the Rekord cinema center in Nizhny Novgorod as a folklore festival of Mordvin culture, which shows its interregional reach already at that time.[4][1]

Sources

  1. Historical Encyclopedia of Nizhny Novgorod — The ethnopark that hosts the festival is also known as "Erzyan Mastor" and "Lismapria"; it was founded by Nikolay Ivanovich Anoshkin, director of the Erzya museum
  2. KP — Nizhny Novgorod — In 2012, the "Lismapria" festival was included in the program of events of the Nizhny Novgorod "Rekord" film center as a folklore festival of Mordvin culture, which attest
  3. Newsroom24 — The festival program includes an exhibition of decorative and applied arts, master classes, national sports games, a gala concert, and an awards ceremony for participants; to the u
  1. NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" — More than 1,000 people took part in the "Lismapria" festival of Mordvin culture in Nizhny Novgorod Region Nizhny Novgorod News (archive)
  2. kivat-sbibl.moy.su — "Live, Mordvin Culture" — March 5, 2015 — Library of the MUK "KMBS," Kivat (archive)