Every year, on 15 January, Romania marks National Culture Day, the birthday of Mihai Eminescu. In 2024 it was 174 years since the birth of the poet we call the Evening Star of Romanian poetry.
At PlusKids we marked the day with creative projects and the children's enthusiastic participation in educational activities. Eminescu's poetry is not easy for primary classes, and we did not try to pretend otherwise. We chose something else: to dwell on the sound of the lines, on the images inside them and on a few words no longer used today. An eight-year-old cannot analyse a poem, but they can feel perfectly well when a line sounds beautiful, and everything starts from there.
We then talked about the man, not only the work: when he lived, what he read, how young he was when he started writing. Details of this kind bring a name on a cover closer to a person who genuinely existed.
The children's projects brought a touch of magic to the celebration of our cultural heritage — and the delight with which they worked was the best sign that the day had done its job.