FESTIVAL OF NATIONS
Event continues 46-year tradition of promoting diversity
Visitors to the Empire State Plaza had a chance to travel around the world Sunday without even having to go out in the rain.
Argentina, Armenia, Bangladesh, China, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, Liberia, Lithuania, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Puerto Rico, Russia, Scotland, Taiwan, Turkey and Ukraine were all represented at the 46th annual Festival of Nations, held inside the Empire State Plaza Convention Center.
The aim of the festival, which began in Troy, is to create awareness and appreciation for the diverse cultural heritage of the people of the Capital Region and to promote unity, understanding and fellowship.
“You get to know the culture of each and every country,” explained Ayaz Malik, one of the event organizers.
Virginia Rexrode, who came with her daughter and granddaughter, said she enjoyed the sounds, smells, flavors, fashion and entertainment of several countries during their first-ever visit to the festival.
“It was wonderful,” said Rexrode, who was visiting family in the Lake George area from South Carolina.
Bubble tea from Korea, shortbread from Scotland and spanakopita from Greece were some of their favorite purchases at the festival, and the family was on its way to get baklava for the trip north.
“It was all good,”
“We teach, and we learn, too. It’s an honor to partake in this with the other 25 nations.” — Rafi Topalian
Rexrode said.
Peddling baklava from the Armenian food booth was Rafi Topalian of Watervliet, who is also known throughout the area as The Singing Jeweler. Armenia
has been reprsented at the Festival of Nations from the event’s early years, and Topalian said he most loves seeing youth from the Armenian community perform music that represents their culture. This year, in addition to leading the festival parade, 2016 Miss Festival of Nations Renee Dearstyne, representing Armenia,
sang the Armenian Lord’s Prayer with John Michael Dearstyne.
“We teach, and we learn, too,” Topalian said. “It’s an honor to partake in this with the other 25 nations.”
Representing Greece was a group from St. Basil’s Greek Orthodox Church in Troy.
“Actually, our church
was in the founding group of people that started this,” said church member Despina Brosnihan. “We’ve been doing it since year one, and it’s kind of special to watch our kids out on the stage dancing and sharing their culture, because it’s the same thing that we were doing when we were youngsters.”
Brosnihan was busy serving spanikopita to customers throughout the afternoon, along with other women from the church.
“We also enjoy when people come and seek us out for our food and appreciate all of our hard work,” she said between servings.