Makhachkala, January 14, 2016. Dagestan delegation headed by Gasan Gasanov, the representative of the republic in St. Petersburg took an active part in the ethnic festival, held January 3 to 10 in the main exhibition hall of St. Petersburg. The members of the public organization "Youth community of Dagestan", the children's and youth dance ensembles "Druzhba" and "Imamate" and others have participated in the event.

The Christmas tents decorated in ethnic style such as the Russian izba, Caucasian hut, a raw-hide tent of northern peoples and Buryat yurt have been exhibited in the 7th pavilion of "LenExpo" on an area of 7 thousand sq. meters. Here, the visitors could see the national peculiarities of the New Year celebrations in different regions of Russia, the Caucasus, Eastern and Central Asia and got familiarized with the culture, customs and traditions of the peoples of world.

The guests dipped briefly into the festive atmosphere, met with the Scottish chimney sweep for “happiness”, a funny Colombian giant on traditional stilts, and made a carnival procession to the fabulous world of animated characters.

During the New Year holidays, the 50 best folk ensembles performed in the festival in St. Petersburg. Many craftsmen held courses in arts and crafts skills-training: national fancywork, drawing patterns on the surface of household items, paintings on Christmas gingerbread cookies, making Christmas gifts, and many other things. The best chefs of St. Petersburg shared their cooking secrets of the most delicious national dishes. Besides, the visitors also could taste the spicy Chinese, Uzbek and Georgian cuisines, and oriental sweets.

According to many visitors of the ethnic festival, Dagestani national exposition became one of the most interesting. The guests were shown the diversity of Dagestani culture as in a variety of exhibition materials - Untsukul knives, Kubachi jewelry, Dagestani artistic, scientific and periodical literatures, leather and furs goods, paintings on Dagestani wild nature and the artworks of Dagestanis living in St.-Petersburg.

The winners of city and international competitions and festivals participated in the gala concert. Among them the Dagestan ensembles - "Druzhba" and "Imamate", Georgian - "Iveria" and "Sikharuli", Azeri dance ensemble - "Chinar", Armenian "Ayastan" and others.

The ethnic festival, organized by the city committee on international relations and the implementation of the migration policy, NGOs and fraternities of St. Petersburg, became a new step in strengthening mutual understanding and friendship among the people of different nationalities and faiths.