In November, Amazonas organized an event centered around different cultures with the main focus on Spain, Slovakia, North Macedonia, and Italy. We named it Evening of Cultures, and by we, I mean myself. To be honest, you had to be there to really experience it, and thus telling you what transpired would not really do it justice. I would not want to bore you to death anyway. However, I will shine some light on details about the event that left an imprint in my memory. My memory is particularly bad, so if I ever remember anything, you better believe it is something amazing…or terrible depending on your perspective.
Before the event could take place, we had to deal with the organization part. This included coming up with an appropriate name for the event. The original name was Intercultural Evening. However, I always have this urge to transform names and titles even though they are perfectly acceptable. Now that I think about it, it is probably some kind of ‘copyright trauma’ induced by my studies at a university. Nevertheless, I came up with this, in my humble opinion, great name – Evening of Cultures. It makes perfect sense. It was centred around cultures and it took place in the evening. I definitely prefer it over the one not made by me. This way, at least to me, it reads as if the evening belongs to the cultures, and isn’t that just wonderful?
In the Eye of the Beholder
The next step was to make a poster for the event. Nadia took it upon herself to create a few versions of the poster with slight differences between them. The moment I saw these posters, all the sirens in my head started blaring. It was all the motivation I needed to take action. The saying that ‘the only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing’ had never rang truer in my life, and I knew I had to act to prevent this catastrophe. I told myself “If not I, then who?” Honestly, I could easily overlook the color scheme, the font, and the positioning. However, seeing a picture of my face in all five versions was something I could not ignore.
The whole success of the event was in my hands. A poster is supposed to make people want to attend the event, not keep them away. Therefore, I started working on my own version of the poster. This was an unfamiliar area, but I gave it my best and created a poster of my own. Luckily, the higher ups, for once, saw reason and chose my version of the poster. Not all heroes wear capes. This experience unlocked a new found confidence in my abilities, and from that moment I knew there was nothing that could disrupt my Evening of Cultures.
Evening of Cultures
I was right. The event went well. People actually attended. All four of us presented our countries not only by using the projector but also by using our culinary abilities, for some it was just the ability to go to the store. We had games, traditions, activities, memes, music, and food. Food is truly that one thing that brings people together is it not? You might not like every single dish or traditional food from a different culture, but there is at least one dish from every culture that you would enjoy. I definitely enjoyed the eating segment of the event the most. When you have to stand in front of people and talk about your country, you might feel stress and pressure to perform, but once we started eating it all went away.
I am not much of a scientist, but I am sure there is some physiological explanation for this phenomenon. Perhaps in the past, when humans ate, they were usually in a safe place from all the predators and therefore they could relax. However, the picture an outsider would see of the eating part would not be relaxing at all. It was pure wilderness out there. All of us, in a frenzy, swooped in like vultures on a carcass and started devouring the food. Success in my book.
Evening of Cultures was truly one in a century. There might not be another event like this one, but there are going to be other events and who knows what will happen. I will be there to witness them all. Can you say the same?
Bran
