Despite the popularity of Erasmus+ projects amongst young people, the initial purpose of Erasmus+ lacks in popularity: fostering a shared sense of European belonging among countries with historical division during the last century (notably, Yugoslav wars, post-Soviet conflicts, and the Hellenic-Turkish and Cypriot-Turkish relations). Truth is, without realising, participants replicate the founding purpose of Erasmus+ the most during a single hour: that of intercultural evenings.

If you are not yet convinced, then look no further than tonight's intercultural evening. Bulgaria opened the evening with "Бяла Роза", which translates to "White Rose". The song follows a young girl which gives a white rose to her loved one as a symbol of eternal, pure love. Needless to say that the song is traditionally sung and danced during weddings. Following Bulgaria, Romania continued with "Foaie verde și o lalea", "Green leaf and a tulip". The lyrics talk about how no matter if life feels like a "flower" or a "falling leaf", you should always approach it with love. At the risk of repeating myself, this song is also highly prevalent in weddings. Moving North, we learned about a Lithuanian wedding tradition called "duona, druska ir degtinė", translating to "bread, salt and degtinė". This tradition symbolises new beginnings, filled with love (again). Performing the tradition, we tossed to the beginning of the project L.E.G.A.L.

Other than romantic love, such as that of couples during their wedding, love also finds its place in friendships. During the intercultural evening, we played "how Serbian are you?" "Take a step forward if you have ever invited someone for one coffee and ended up having dinner together after 5 hours of talking." I don't think I have ever seen 20 people take such a synchronised step before. "Take a step forward if when someone brings you food in a plate, you never give the plate back empty". These Serbian nuances (which apparently are not only Serbian) show us how friendships, with time, birth love (which births in its turn the aforementioned "nuances"). But what about love which, with time, births friendships? 

France has long had an unofficial conflict between Paris and Marseille; about culture, economy, sports, and of course, French identity. But Jul, one of the most popular rappers in Marseille, loves football and rap more than this 40-year-old rivalry. He invited 150 rappers from Paris and Marseille for a music project called "Le Classico Organisé", which from November 2021 and onwards has given birth to hundreds of friendships, between Parisian and Marseillans; rappers and music and football fans alike. During the intercultural evening, we had the opportunity to listen to some of the songs from "Le Classico Organisé", followed by the song "Nessun Dorma". To be sure, "Nessun Dorma" is not a rap song; not even close. It is an opera song, from the infamous love story of Turandot and Calaf, which was shown to us by the Italians, the last but certainly not least country of this project. The story goes as follows; Turandot was a princess in Italy, who didn't want to get married due to fear and revenge for her ancestor, Princess Lou-Ling. So in order to avoid marriage, she gave all princes three difficult-to-solve riddles, which if they failed, they would be awaited by death. Prince Calaf, however, solves the riddles. Seeing the fear in Turandot's face, Prince Calaf offers a counter-riddle; if she doesn't manage to guess his name before dawn, she has to marry him. If she guesses it, she can kill him. Hours go by, but Turandot is unable to discover Calaf's name. When dawn, Calaf kisses Turandot and reveals his name to her, giving her the opportunity to marry him or kill him. Spoiler alert, Turandot tells the Emperor that Calaf's name is "Love" and marries him.

Erasmus+' initial purpose was fostering a shared sense of European belonging. A shared sense of European belonging is the combination of each country's national roots with collective European values. What these values have in common and their connection to intercultural evenings, I will let you figure out on your own.

With love, 

Maria Kafentzi

Author

Maria Kafentzi

© Change, Explore and Grow by Exchange

Address: Teva, bl. 95, fl. 1, ap. 1, Pernik, Bulgaria

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