The City of Churiss Cultural Festival

Cultural Mix

The New City of Churiss is proud of its mulitculturalism. It is something that has been deliberately developed in The Nation of Churiss since its independence from its neighbor Ascadia about one hundred years ago.
Peoples from across the region, and beyond, are all welcome in Churiss - it is a nation that values difference and firmly believes it makes their society stronger.

Citizenship Ceremony

The signal for the Festival to begin is the ceremony for New Citizens of Churiss. Once that ceremony has ended, the new citizens emerge to roaring crowds already eating, drinking, and dancing - some attempting all three at once.
The festival is seen as a wonderful way to welcome those just adopted into the family of the city and nation.

The Festival

The day of the Festival is a national holiday and takes place in mid-summer.
The main festival takes place across much of the capital city, but is mirrored by more modest festivals held across most of the rest of the nation.
It is heavily food-based - a celebration of cultures expressed through cooking and experiencing each others cuisine.
People indigenous to various nations set up pitches and begin cooking in the early hours so all is ready for the ceremony beginning at seven in the morning.
When the new citizens emerge a few hours later, they are welcomed by the aromas of food from over fifty different nations. In fact, all senses are hit with the smells, tastes, sounds, and sights of the festival, now in full swing.
All citizens have an open invitation and thousands of visitors also flock to participate in this enormous celebration.
The Council of Churiss and local businesses supply ingredients, produce, seating, equipment, entertainments, and staff to run the festival across the capital city and beyond.

History

The festival is a relatively new event as Churiss has only been an independent nation for the last one hundred years - and it took some time in subsequently deciding what sort of nation it wished to be. 
The result was what many would describe as a progressive society - one that valued individuality, freedom, and openness to other nations and cultures. This was reflected in a national statement of values known as The People's Charter.
The idea of this specific festival was put forward by Seth Hedra, the current Head Librarian of The Library of Learning & Culture. He is known as a great supporter of the multicultural outlook of Churiss and wanted events to celebrate, and consolidate, the policies that paved the way for the current diversity the nation enjoys.
With a few exceptions, the idea of the festival was warmly welcomed and within two years it was up and running.
It has not changed much over the years, except in the huge increase in the number of festival-goers and nations represented. 
In fact, some peoples from other parts of the world now request an invitation to take part so they to can share their cultural heritage with the people of Churiss.

Cuisines on Show

Of those cuisines that appeared at the most recent festival, those voted the most delicious or memorable are listed here:

• The vibrant and colorful cuisine of Donesi full of intense flavors even in their delicious fish soups.
• Barbequed meats of Ezania.
• Marinated fish dishes from Eru.
• Seafood salad platters from Dagasca flavored with ginger and limes.
• Stewed snails from Ndorra - not to everyone's taste but memorable none the less.
• Coconut whiskey from Eylonia.
• Chocolate pastry pies from Norn Ionia, buttery, flaky pastry with deep tasting chocolate.
• Sweet fruit yeast breads from Ithunia most commonly filled with cherries and walnuts.

The dish voted 'Best of the Festival' was the Chocolate Pastry Pie' prepared by Hlola Galran (16 years old) from North Ionia

Friendships

It is a tradition of the festival for the cooks/stallholders to have written copies of their recipes to hand, so festival-goers can take them home and try for themselves.
Many friendships are forged in this way as it is also customary for the recipients of the recipes to invite the stallholders and their families into their homes to try their culinary attempts.

Objectors

There are those that take no part in the Festivals. As well as individuals, there are groups such as ROC, who despise the multi-cultural outlook of Churiss.
However, on the day of the Festivals, their voices are overwhelming drowned out by the joy expressed by the vast majority of the population. Their joy and love for each other, and all nations, rises above all objectors' hatred, making a clear statement that the haters will never change the progressive path that Churiss set out upon decades ago.

Cover art by: ktphotography https://pixabay.com/users/ktphotography-5847971/
Chocolate pastry photograph by: Skeeze https://pixabay.com/users/skeeze-272447/