The Turkmenian Melon Day
The Turkmenian Melon Day is a holiday that has become a tradition at the Academy.
For the eighth time, Turkmenian students gathered at the Faculty of International Relations to have a talk about melon, agriculture in Turkmenistan and Belarus and celebrate the holiday “Gawun baýramy”.
All Belarusian students went home to their parents for the vacation time. Turkmenian students are no exception, but there are some who, for many objective reasons, cannot go home to Turkmenistan and stay in Belarus for the summer. An important task of any educational institution in the Republic is to organize a leisure time activities for foreign students during the holidays.
It has already become a tradition at the Academy to hold a picnic with the Turkmenian students on the territory of our campus every summer, dedicated to the Day of the Turkmenian melon (Turkm. Gawun baýramy), which is always widely celebrated in Turkmenistan and is a national holiday. In 1994, the first President Saparmurat Niyazov established this holiday. On the day of the Turkmen melon, mass celebrations and exhibitions of melons and national dishes prepared from them are organized in the capital of the country, Ashgabat. On this day, the President of Turkmenistan awards the best melon growers and collectors of the country – the winners of the contest with the promising name “Golden Melon of the Golden age”.
The students gave some recipies of various dishes that can be prepared from melons, spoke about Turkmenian folk songs about the harvest and melon.
To congratulate the students came the Rector of the Academy M. I. Haurychenka, Vice-rector N. S. Motuzko and the Dean of the International Relations Faculty D. N. Fedotov.
According to the register Of the Museum of Agriculture of Turkmenistan, over 1000 varieties of melons were created on the Turkmenian land during the history of melon cultivation. So, in addition to breeding new varieties, domestic breeders are engaged in restoring the old ones, “lost” in time. Attracting the attention of agricultural scientists and historians from all over the world for many centuries, Turkmenian melons, awarded with the gold medals at prestigious international exhibitions, have augmented their glory.
D. N. Fedotov,
Dean FIRCGPT
