Festival of veps culture “Tree of life”
 

The Veps, descendants of the legendary “Vesi”, is one of the small native ethnic groups of Russia. Their ethnic territory is located between the Ladoga, Onega and White lakes. In Vologda Oblast the Veps live on the territory of Kiyno and Pyazhozero rural settlements of the Babaevsky District, Oshtino rural settlement of the Vytegorsky District in hewn log houses with small windows typical to the Veps, located high above the ground. All old houses have platbands painted blue (the color of water) or green (the color of plants), and the frontal board of platbands is decorated with the laid-on decor consisting of two rhombuses, compositions from rings and two elongated semi-rhombuses, there's also an "ear-ring" on each side of the board. In olden time the majority of houses were decorated with identical ornament on the platband frontal board to protect the house from the evil.

The Veps are wonderful people. They were first mentioned in the chronicles of the VI century. Their basic occupations were agriculture, cattle breeding, fishing and hunting. The Veps were known also as skilful handicraftsmen: they practiced domestic weaving and sewing, manufacturing of tools, objects of everyday life, ceramics. The Vepsian language was formed for centuries. It's the most ancient in the Baltic-Finnish group. Thus the rare epic and musical folklore and the richest original culture that were passed from generation to generation were created.

The first Veps folklore festival took place in June, 1988 in the village of Pondala of the Babaevsky District. In due course it got the status of the Inter-regional Festival of Veps Culture «The Tree of Life». And since 2004 it is carried out annually. The symbol of the festival is the Tree of Life - a cosmic world tree, which is in traditional perception connected with religious - mythological model of the world. In the context of the festival the Tree of Life is seen as a basis for the Veps culture, a way to hand over traditions from one generation to another. The festival objective is to promote Vepsian national traditions, to preserve the Veps language.

The program of the festival includes celebration of the oldest and young inhabitants who have made a significant contribution to the development of local social and economic sphere, performances by the Vepsian folklore groups, animation programs for children and adults on the basis of the Veps folk traditions, exhibitions of applied, decorative and folk arts, visiting of the museum «Vepsskaya Gornitsa», performances of the authors writing in the Veps language and other events. Another bright event of the festival is the bonfire and a dance around it, hanging of little bells and tying of stripes onto the tree - symbols of preservation of the Veps culture.

Nobody is afraid of long distances nowadays. Annually visitors come here to get acquainted to the once forbidden culture and its traditions. There are many legends about the rich Vepsian fish-soup which is made in the hugest boiler, and its secret is known only to the natives as well as a secret of preparation of Vepsian fish pies "korost" - traditional Vepsian dishes and other culinary exquisites of this small ethnic group. And this variety of fish dishes among the Veps isn't surprising: this land of blue lakes is rich in fish. Those who love fishing, having visited these places, won't regret that they have made such a long way! It's really a pleasure to simply go by boat on a beautiful smooth surface of the lake.

In 2004 in the village Kiyno there was opened the Veps Culture Museum. The exposition is very diverse: an archeological collection, illustrating the Veps history from the most ancient times, a collection of items of fabric, wood, iron, ceramics, and also objects of everyday life, clothes, furniture, works of art and crafts, traditional Vepsian craft, books and photos. The museum provides diversified excursions - «Vepsian crafts», «Traditional Vepsian clothes», and also open lessons on history and study of local lore are constantly carried out. It is planned to build a typological Vepsian country manor with a number of servicing buildings and their location traditional to the Veps.