On September 18, 2021, the citizens of Kherson celebrated the 243rd Birthday of Kherson, the city of seafarers and shipbuilders.
The celebration began with a solemn march of cadets of Kherson State Maritime Academy followed by a brass band headed by Oleksandr Kuzmenko through Ushakov Avenue to the Dnieper embankment, where the opening of the festival of sea traditions “Rynda” took place.
The mayor of Kherson Ihor Kolykhaiev and the honorary guest of the holiday, the Consul of the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Odessa Pavlo Nedvedietskyi addressed their opening speeches to inhabitants and guests of the city. Deep Sea Captain, Head of Department of Ship Handling at Sea of KSMA, Ph.D. Oleh Tovstokoryi also congratulated the co-residents on the holiday.
On the Dnieper embankment, the staff of KSMA created several maritime locations to present Navigation Faculty and Ship Engineering Faculty of the Academy and Kherson Maritime Specialized Training Center of KSMA. Kherson residents got the opportunity to learn about the areas of training of maritime professionals at the institution, and to see the equipment used for training. The staff of the academy helped the participants to feel the real sea romance: they organized master classes on knitting sea knots, taught citizens to use a ship’s bell, which is usually called a rynda, and explained how to strike the watch bell correctly.
The visitors got acquainted with the exhibits of the Museum of Maritime Education of KSMA: a cup and ship’s bell cast from a metal of the ship of the XVII century and raised from the bottom of the Gulf of Gdansk. The crew of the legendary sailing ship “Tovarishch” received these awards for winning the regatta “Operation VITRYLO” in 1974.
The cadets of the Academy and Maritime College of KSMA took part in the dragon race, competitions in kettlebell lifting, weightlifting and tug of war, which were held as part of the festival.
Department of Extracurricular Activities of KSMA joined the eco-festival “Kherson dECOrations”. The employees of the department involved the residents of the city in an ecological game “What is at the bottom of the Dnieper?”, and in that way made the participants think about the need to preserve water resources of Kherson region.
The City Day is a holiday that teaches to love and dream. We hope that Kherson citizens will long remember the festival of sea traditions “Rynda” and other festive events, and that these will inspire someone to choose the profession of a seafarer in the future.
