“Pray for me”: a unique children’s festival about spiritual Pushkin will be held in Mikhailovsky

During the autumn school holidays, from October 30 to November 3, the State Museum-Reserve of A.S. Pushkin "Mikhailovskoye" will become a platform for an unusual event. Pushkin Children’s Festival “Pray for Me” will be held here, the participants of which will be schoolchildren of 6-8 grades from Pskov, Moscow, Tver and Leningrad regions.

The name of the festival refers to a deep and touching story told by Doctor of Theology, Professor of the Moscow Theological Academy Archpriest Alexander Vetelev. According to him, in the 1960s, Pushkin appeared to him in a dream and asked him to pray for him, noting: “Here, on earth, all my poems are read and everyone glorifies me, but no one prays for me.” Later, this story formed the basis of the collection of the same name, published with the blessing of Metropolitan Eusebius of Pskov and Velikoluk. The very idea of the festival was born during the conversations of Bishop Velikioluksky and Nevelsky Barnava with the staff of the museum-reserve.

The main goal of the organizers is to show the children of Alexander Sergeevich not as a bronze monument from a literature textbook, but as a living person with his spiritual quest, faith, love for family and native land.

The program of the festival is rich and diverse. Students are waiting for thematic excursions and lectures of the curator of the memorial estate Julia Uzeneva about the life of the poet in the Pskov province. The children will visit the Svyatogorsk Monastery, where the great poet found his last shelter, and the men's monastery in Vevno. A special event will be a concert show of the animated series “Pushkin and... Mikhailovsky” accompanied by live music. The festival will end with a presentation of creative works that participants will prepare based on the results of what they saw and heard.

By the way, on November 3, the last day of the festival, Mikhailovsky will join the All-Russian action “Night of Arts”. A special promenade concert “In the unity of cultures – the power of the people” will be organized for the young audience, which will be the bright final point of the vacation program.