"Difference is What Makes Us Similar". All cultures day 2022

On December 13, the Master's program "Applied Social Psychology" and the Center for Socio-Cultural Research held an annual event - "All Cultures Day 2022".

"All Cultures Day 2022" is a holiday for the entire multinational community of students and teachers at the Higher School of Economics. For the first time since the beginning of COVID-19, this holiday was held both online and in person.

This year, "All Cultures Day" was held in the format of a multicultural fair, which allowed students from different faculties to get to know each other and tell about their culture in the most interesting way. For example, undergraduate students of the HSE Department of Psychology Danilitskaya Taisiya and Kuznetsova Maria showed how to weave an ancient Slavic doll amulet with their own hands, in which all students and teachers participated with pleasure. Gharibah Ghenwa prepared the most delicious hummus, which did not leave indifferent any participant of the event. Maria Dzyubenko and Elizaveta Komyaginskaya immersed all participants in the Indian culture of yoga practice and held a 10-minute intensive workout. Maria Mitryaeva treated everyone to warm spicy oriental karak tea, which is popular in Arab countries, and the tutor of the program, Ekaterina Vasilyeva, held a master class on writing Chinese characters. Victoria Blokhina, center for sociocultural research, and Daria Chernetsova, bachelor student, baked gingerbread cookies and introduced to everyone a tradition of decorating them. Everyone had an opportunity to decorate their own cookie. 

Students from Colombia, Jonathan Dix Polo and Paulo Alejandro, who organized a competition to find Colombian household items and culture in the Disney cartoon Encanto, deserved special attention.

The evening ended with inspiring Jonathan's song DIFFERENCES, which he specially wrote for All Cultures Day 2022. Lyrics of the song translate the message of the event and our masters program in general - Difference is what makes us similar! 

Online All cultures day event was held on a well-prepared and decorated website by the students in charge. Lecturer AnastasiaTrifonova gave a short speech before the event, and then led the students into the master classes. Ralina Fatykhova showed a presentation about the UAE cultural and Karak Tea, she also kindly shared the recipe of this special warm tea online with participants. Next, Zhao Zilin represented Chinese cultural and carried out a master class on writing Chinese characters with interesting legends. Participants developed a strong interest in Chinese characters and actively asked questions after the presentation. The last part of the online Cultural day was multicultural knowledge quiz organized by Evgenia and Valery. This quiz covered culture and customs of Armenia, German, Finland and so on, our students learned that there are 40 letters in Armenia alphabet, German elementary school students prepare candy bags instead of flowers for teachers on September 1st.

For the students in Applied social psychology, it was an unforgettable experience to get new knowledge about other cultures in this easy and relax format.

We hope that this good tradition will only grow stronger and next year All Cultures Day will be held just as brightly and cheerfully!