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Street fairs, celebrations mark Tiraspol's 214th birthday
Today, residents of Tiraspol celebrated 214 years since the city was founded. The capital city was founded in 1792. Its birthday was celebrated with fairs, live music, free beer and dancing in the streets.
Residents of Tiraspol took to the streets to celebrate their city's 214 year birthdayTIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - "Happy Birthday, Tiraspol!" 214 years old today, the capital of Pridnestrovie celebrated with street fairs and music as residents danced in the street and gushed free beer all afternoon as part of festivities organized by local mayor Victor Kostyrko.
Ethnic Russians and Ukrainians arranged public sports exhibitions in the street, including boxing, chess, badminton and darts competitions. Meanwhile, ethnic Moldovans showcased a traditional sport of their own, Trynta fighting, with the first prize being a live Ram.
At 2:30 p.m., the taps were opened for Tiraspol's own October Fest, a beer festival with free pilsner throughout the rest of the day in honor of the city's 214 birthday.
To congratulate the city with its birthday, foreign delegations arrived from fifteen Russian municipalities as well as from city administrations in Ukraine, Belarus and Abkhazia, an unrecognized country on the Black Sea.
- Flowers to unofficial patron saint
The city was founded on 14 October 1792 by Russian field marshal Alexander Suvorov as a fortress marking the border between the Imperial Russia, on the Dniester river, and Moldova, at the time ruled by the Muslim Ottoman Empire.
A large statue of Russian field marshal stands in Tiraspol. A.V. Suvorov was one of few generals in history who never lost a battle. Considered the father of the Pridnestrovie, in 1792 he founded modern Tiraspol. Some two hundred years later, the people of Pridnestrovie adopted Suvorov as their symbol for those two reasons: As the founding father, and because he never lost a battle. For the anniversary Saturday, the Suvorov statue was decked out with flowers, forming the numbers "214" below the city's oficial coat of arms.
Suvorov is revered in the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica, almost as the patron saint of the country.
The fact that he never lost a battle carries a great mythology for the population. They remember how, during the recent 1992 war, they were able to hold off attacks from Moldova and consolidate their de facto independence.
With the Dniester River as an international border for most of the past 2,500 years, Tiraspol and Pridnestrovie has traditionally been on the faultline between a clash of civilizations. The Dniester has for ages represented a border where civilizations meet, and in 1792 it was the case of Muslim vs Christian Orthodox forces. Tiraspol, on the Christian side, was the outpost in the fault line war between the Ottoman Empire (Turkish forces) and the European civilization (represented by Imperial Russia).
- Liturgies celebrated in the country's churches
October 14 is also the day when the Christian Orthodox world celebrates Protection of the Mother of God, and liturgies were served in churches throughout the length of Pridnestrovie today.
In Tiraspol’s church of the Protection of Our Most Holy Lady the Mother of God, Pridnestrovie's own bishop Justinian served the Divine Liturgy, as reported by the news agency Regnum. Festal liturgies were also served in the Birth of Christ Cathedral, the largest church in the country.
Tiraspol is also a city with strong Jewish roots. The 1897 citywide census showed that 27 percent of Tiraspol's population were Jews. This changed only in World War II, when a Nazi-backed Romanian invasion and extermination campaign established the infamous "Transnistria" killing fields, and first introduced this Romanian name to the traditionally non-Romanian territory.
Due to its origin in a bloodbath of Jewish extermination, residents never use the name "Transnistria", preferring instead Pridnestrovie, PMR or the unofficial Transdniester. Even ethnic Moldovans who live in the country consider it insensitive and offensive to say Transnistria.
Today the city is home to 159,000 inhabitants. Twelve percent are ethnic Moldovans (down from 14% in 1989), the rest are mostly Slavs.
On the web:
» Tiraspol travel information and maps
(Photo: New Region Press)
(Photo: New Region Press)
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