European Soirée 2024 Overview
During the year 2024 we played the game “Who am I?” in our Come Togheter Sessions. The goal of the game is to guess which European personality the participant is representing by asking yes or no questions, e.g. Are you a women? Are you a writer?. This way we can get to know different personalities from our partner countries that were / are important for common European history!
82. Come together Session am Sonntag 11.02.24
Riddel by Hugh Busher
I saw the light of day for the first time in the year (1965) in (Yate, near Bristol, England, UK).
The following characteristics, actions and and ideas create a good picture of me:
Woman, writer, fantasy/mythology linked to ancient European fairy stories, philanthropist.
My humble role in the European history is characterized by:
books and their films influencing how people, especially younger people think, imagine and relate to the challenges of their cultural world – my work has been translated into 85 languages worldwide.
To conclude I would like to give the reader the following words for the way:
The ordinary can become extraordinary; rise to your dreams despite the challenges you may face; care for those people in need of help.
Riddel by Emiliya Velikova
I saw the light of day for the first time in the year (827) in (Solun (the Soluniki), Bizantine).
Moreover, if I am already deceased I died in the year (869), death found me in (ROM).
The following characteristics, actions and ideas create a good picture of me:
I and my brother were Christian theologians and missionaries. We were known as the “Apostles to the Slavs”. In 1980, the first Slav pope, Pope John Paul II declared us co-patron saints of Europe. I graduated and was a professor at the University of Magnaura. I learned many languages such as Roman, Latin, Slavic, Khazar, Jewish, and Saracen, languages. I was on a missionary expedition to the Khazars, to the Slavs in Great Moravia, to the Arabians in Bagdad, to the Bulgarians along the Bregalinishka River, to the Alanis in Fula, to the Hungarians in Pannonia, etc. I and my students translated the Gospels and liturgical books into the Slavic languages.
My humble role in the European history is characterized by:
I with the help of my bother Methodius created Glagolitsa alphabet that was used in Great Moravia, Croatia, Pannonia.
To conclude I would like to give the reader the following words for the way:
The significant role of the Glagolitsa was that it was the matrix, the methodology for creating the new alphabet called Cyrillic alphabet in honor of Cyril.
The celebrating of St. Cyril and St. Methodius was organized in 1207 by King Boris III for the first time. There was a break of celebrating the brothers in the Ottoman occupation (for 500 years). It started again 200 years ago.
Bulgarians have a National School Anthem which is sung by everybody on 24th May – the Day of the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius, of the Bulgarian alphabet, education and culture, and of the Slavic literature.
Riddel by Ana Zlibut
I saw the light of day for the first time in the year (1897) in (Braila, Romania).
Moreover, if I am already deceased I died in the year (1988), death found me in (Bucuresti).
The following characteristics, actions and ideas create a good picture of me:
I have produced more than 200 scientific papers presented worldwide, received dozens of international awards for my work – as the international prize and the “Leon Bernard” medal, awarded by the World Health Organization for my contribution to the development of gerontology and geriatrics, and have been a member of more than 20 prestigious world organisations. I am known due to my scientific research that led to Gerovital “Fountain of youth”, that I prescribed for the effects of aging.
My humble role in the European history is characterized by:
I founded the world’s first geriatric institute in 1952.
To conclude I would like to give the reader the following words for the way:
To be forever young is not to be 20 years old, but to be optimistic, to feel good, to have an ideal in life to fight for and to conquer.
84. Come together Session am 17.03.24
Riddel by Rosemarie Kurz
I saw the light of day for the first time in the year 1756 in Salzburg
And if I am already deceased I died in the year 1791, the death found me in Vienna
The following characteristics actions and ideas create a good picture of me:
I heard music even as a baby and started playing Violine and Cembalo, a kind of piano, with 4 years. As was very gifted my father started tours through the western Europaean Cities: Paris, London, Amsterdam, Prag, München, Mannheim, Köln und Berlin. I had much to do earning enough money for my family.
My humble role in the European history is characterized by:
As I was playing violine and cembalo very well my father started tours through the western Europaean Cities: Paris, London, Amsterdam, Prag, München, Mannheim, Köln und Berlin. Being a grown up person my music had been played in all these cities. So music was the tool of understanding among people who spoke different languages.
To conclude I would like to give the reader the following words for the way:
Music is a fablous tool to get people to understand and like one another!
Riddel by Pavlina Ivanova
I saw the light of day for the first time in the year 1942 in the village of Arda in the Rodopa Mountains.
The following characteristics, actions and ideas create a good picture of me:
I have been working with the Rodopa State Ensemble for Folk Songs and Dances from the town of Smolyan as a soloist since 1960.
My best-known recording of the song “Izlel ye Delyo Haydutin” accompanied by the bagpipe players Lazar Kanevski and Stephan
Zahmanov was made in 1968 by the American explorer of Bulgarian folklore Martin Koening and was released in the United States.
My humble role in the European history is characterized by:
In 1977, a Golden Record of 27 songs was prepared as a message from the Earth to fly out of the Solar System aboard two identical
spacecraft from the NASA Voyager program. My best record of the song “Izlel ye Delyo Haydutin” was included in the final 90-minute
musical selection by Carl Sagan and flew first on the Voyager 2, which was launched on August 20, 1977, and two weeks later on
September 5, 1977, on the Voyager 1. On August 25, 2012, Voyager 1 became the first object of human origin to leave the Heliosphere
and to enter Interstellar medium
To conclude I would like to give the Soiree the following words for the way:
“The most important lessons I want my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to know are to love people and to bow their
heads in respect when they meet an older person. May they, too, live to see his years. Because when you smile at an older person, you
give them the strength and courage to still be on our earth. And when you turn careless, you make him sick.”
85. Come together Session am 28.04.24
Riddel by Brigitte Nguyen-Duong
I saw the light of day for the first time in the year 1947 in Günzburg near Ulm.
Moreover, I died in the year 1992, death found me in Bonn.
The following characteristics, actions and ideas create a good picture of me:
My stepfather came from the USA and I spent my childhood and youth with him in the States, where I studied
Political Science at the University of Washington. When I came back to Europe, I worked at the European Community
at Brussels. Then in Germany I was member of the socialist party
My humble role in the European history is characterized by:
Finally, I was one of the founders of the Green Party in Germany, later on the leader of the Green Party in Germany. I received the Alternative Nobel Prize.
To conclude I would like to give the Soiree the following words for the way:
My advice: fighting for democracy, ecology and rights of humanity.
Riddel by Dejan Zagorac
To resolve the mystery about my person I would like to give a few hints:
I am the most famous Serbian (and ex-Yugoslav writer) of the XX century. Many schools and streets all over Serbia are named after me.
I saw the light of day for the first time in the year 1892 in October.
Moreover, if I am already deceased I died in the year 1975, death found me in March in Belgrade
The following characteristics, actions and ideas create a good picture of me:
I wrote several masterpiece novels, essays and stories. The most famous is novel Bridge on the Drina. I was a diplomat and ambassador of Kingdom of Yugoslavia during Nazi regime in Germany, and after Hitler invaded my country, I refused the offer to take refuge in Switzerland and came back to destroyed Belgrade, and I refused all offers to cooperate with Kvisling government. During this terrible time, I wrote all my best novels. I left al my material heritage (I was awarded by Nobel prize for literature in 1961) to small libraries across Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
My humble role in the European history is characterized by:
My work is mixture of many influences from different European cultures : German, Polish, Czech, Italian… My novels are translated to almost all European languages. After the war I worked together with intellectuals from whole Europe no matter from which size of Iron Curtain they were.
I think that through my books other Europeans got better understanding of Balkan nations, and I tried to point the finger to hidden hate and wounds that were always open between Balkan nations, that unfortunately explode at the end of XX century.
To conclude I would like to give the Soiree the following words for the way:
Read good books also from “small” cultures and literatures, but also try to learn a lessons from these books and observe history as “magistra vitae” and try not to repeat mistakes. Try to sustain your integrity and proud no matter how harsh times and circumstances are.
86. Come together Session am 02.06.24
Riddel by Georgi Mladenov
I saw the light of day for the first time in the year 1867 in Warsaw, Poland.
Death found me in 1934.
The following characteristics actions and ideas create a good picture of me:
physicist, chemist, inventor, smart, explorer, pioneer, scientist, Nobel prize winner fighter for women’s rigihts.
My humble role in the European history is characterized by:
changing the understanding of physics, discoverer of radioactivity.
To conclude I would like to give the reader the following words for the way:
No thing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood.