Fall Ball of Chrysanthemums opened in Pechersk Landscape Park. Visitors can admire flowers till October 30. The opening ceremony of the ball was accompanied by music performed by Kyiv Academic Municipal Wind Orchestra (conducted by Yurii Melnyk).
The main beauty – chrysanthemum is very much liked by designers, because it is a long lasting and bright flower. It blooms in fall, has a convenient form of a small bush. In Japan, for example, there is a special holiday of chrysanthemums celebrated on the 9th of the ninth month according to the lunar calendar and falls on time of Indian summer. The holiday of chrysanthemums in Japan is a special ritual: while performing it one should enjoy every shade of the flower, immersing oneself in deep meditation on the meaning of life and the accomplished part of it. Something similar is happening on Kyiv hills these days. At the entrance to the park spherical chrysanthemums are welcoming visitors as if all prepared for the ball. Designers from ten districts of the capital planted flower compositions. You can come and enjoy them till the end of October.
It was interesting to watch the flower compositions being made. Desniansky district organized a real workshop. Designer Oleksii Kuznetsov and his boss Oleh Kravchenko explained the meaning of their composition: three leaves have fallen on the hill of the fall park, a snail, a lady bug, and a dragon fly settled on them. Each leaf is 10 square meters big. The snail was designed from 30 bushes of chrysanthemums: 12 pink bushes, ten yellow ones, and eight white ones. The lady bug was made of 15 red bushes, three white ones, and one big red bush of chrysanthemums on a maple leaf. Cart full of various fall crop vegetables: pumpkins, onions, cabbage, and garlic serve as decorative materials. Landscape designers and school students create their works on green leaves. “Student’s exposition with us or our exposition with school students,” make a joke landscape designers. There are already five school students from three schools of Troieshchyna (No.248, No.278, and No.294) willing to take part in the event.
They begin work from the most difficult part – the snail. Students from school No.278 agreed to join in. Social teacher from school No.294 Oksana Tytarenko said that they’ve selected those willing among high school students. She sincerely rejoiced at such action because it is important to involve children more in social work.
Compositions of Darnytsky and Dniprovsky districts are made in Japanese style: Japanese Garden in Fall and Tricks of Nature. Desniansky district presented Generous Crop and Pechersky district presented Waltz of Chrysanthemums. Podilsky district reminded about Indian summer. The slope was decorated with Ukrainian Wreath by Sviatoshynsky district, and slightly above one can see Greeting Card made by Shevchenkivsky district. In the center of the field there was a symbolic composition of Holosiivsky district’ Family Tree. By the way, Sviatoshynsky district dedicated their composition to the 90th anniversary of Dmytro Lutsenko, Ukrainian poet and song writer, author of the lyrics for the song My Kyiv.
Oleskandr Popov, head of Kyiv City State Administration seriously examined the compositions. Liudmyla Dovzhenko, designer of public utility company for maintenance of community landscapes in Solomiansky district told why Japanese motives prevailed in their composition. It turns out that in the minds of the Japanese chrysanthemums and sun are inseparable, and the words used to name those concepts in Japanese are homonyms, meaning that they sound the same and are indicated by the same hieroglyph. The home flower of Japan is named after the luminary, from which, according to a legend, Japanese people trace their history.
Natalia Nesterchuk, biology teacher at the city gymnasium No.13 says that chrysanthemum has a very honorable place among Japan’s state symbols. Approximately from the seventh century image of chrysanthemum is considered the emblem of Japanese emperors. Stylized golden flower with 16 double petals is still the emblem of the Imperial House and sometimes is used as a national emblem. The same kind of flower is on the Highest Order of the Chrysanthemum, which was approved by the Emperor Meiji in 1876 and is still considered the most honorable award in the country.
In a small corner of the composition by Solomiansky district there is a Japanese woman who invites everyone to a tea ceremony.
Landscape designers are delighted that teachers and students accepted their invitation. Unique program launched this year, where students of Kyiv schools together with masters were able to show their skills, talent, creativity, and resourcefulness. Everyone worked on equal terms. Each school received 33 chrysanthemums and space of 10 square meters. Students could use other decorative materials, tools, and objects to make their works unique. As it always happens in contests of this kind, the works were evaluated by independent experts. Head of the jury was Anatolii Zhyrnov, honorary president of Ukraine’s Guild of Landscape Architects. The respected judge took into account almost everything: good use of an object in the landscape, compositional solutions, choice and combination of material, artistic design, combination of colors, professional level of skills, and quality of planting. Even clarity of conveying the idea also was taken into account. Schools of Obolonsky district won the first place for the composition designed by Svitlana Kuznetsova, Fall Landscape. Second place went to schools of Pechersky district for the musical composition Waltz of Chrysanthemums. School of Desniansky district won the honorable third place. Children with their small hands created this complex composition with a snail. Serhii Lytvynchuk, student from school No.248 presented the composition. The cart with the “treasure” became the best background against which Kyiv residents took their photos. By the way, the total number of chrysanthemums that came to the ball was 3,000.
