About the festival "Cranes and Cranberries of Miory Region"

It has become a good tradition to hold the ecological festival "Cranes and Cranberries of the Miory Region" annually in September in the Miory district. It was launched in 2012.

 

         The timing of the festival is not accidental: it is in September that the cranberry harvesting season begins here, and the Yalnya bog holds the first place in Belarus in terms of berry reserves. In addition, the Miory district annually hosts over 35,000 common cranes and tens of thousands of geese of various species, which stop to rest at the Yalnya bog during their autumn migration.

            This year, the traditional festival "Cranes and Cranberries of the Miory Region" was held on September 20 in Miory.

             The ecological festival kicked off with a cranberry harvesting competition among trade union organizations of the labor collectives of the Miory district, called "Cranberry Taste". The head of the Miory District Inspectorate of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, Kapustin A.N., also took part in this competition. Furthermore, on the eve of the main celebration day, an ecological week was held in the district's educational institutions from September 15 to 19, a meeting with young specialists who arrived in the district, a meeting of the young family club "On the Crane's Trail" at the visitor center of the "Yalnya" state environmental institution, and a youth auto enthusiasts' skills competition "Crane Drive".

              September 20, the main day of the festival, was also packed with various events, including those with an ecological theme. The ecological festival "Cranes and Cranberries of the Miory Region" was combined with the 2025 harvest campaign and the patriotic education of the population, which gave the celebrations a special meaning and resonance.

               A rally was held on Lenin Square in the district center, dedicated to honoring the rural workers who participated in the 2025 harvest campaign "Dazhynki", with the laying of flowers at the memorial sign to the soldiers-liberators of Miory from the Nazi invaders; a solemn procession of the rally participants along the route: Lenin Square – Kommunisticheskaya Street – Kirova Street – Izvarina Street – City Park "Poluostrov".

The opening of the regional competition of song and music ensembles "Zhuraviny zvon" and the regional interactive exhibition-competition of artistic crafts "Ptushyny perapalokh" took place on the peninsula. The exhibition of ecological literature "Zhuraviel-asvietnik", the competition of farmsteads of the Miory district "Zhuraviny kirmaš", the awarding of the best workers of the district who took part in the harvesting campaign of 2025, the awarding of the winners of the district competition for landscaping, the winners of the competition of rural farmsteads, the winners of the cranberry harvesting competition, the best cranberry suppliers, the winners of the regional competition of song and music ensembles "Zhuraviny zvon", and the regional interactive exhibition-competition of artistic crafts "Ptushyny perapalokh" were held. The interactive platform "Zhuravlinaya pochta" was operating, where thematic postcards were sent.

Many guests visited the festival, celebrating Yalnya with its high and transitional bogs, where tens of thousands of cranes find temporary shelter and useful cranberries ripen.

Throughout the day, a bus provided free transportation for festival guests to the bog, where they could observe migratory birds, and an open day was held at the visitor center of the state environmental institution "Yalnya". In addition to exciting encounters with birds, festival guests could participate in ecological games, buy souvenirs made by local artisans as a memento of the festival, and also try cranberry juice, various cranberry sweets, and purchase these berries for future use, as master classes were held on preparing dishes with cranberries, traditional folk crafts, and the production of eco-souvenirs.

Many interesting events were prepared for children for the purpose of their environmental education. The festival concluded with a thematic disco "Zhuraviny tanсpol".