Fairy Tale Storytelling Contest. ..part 1

It's that time of the year again...where the families of multicultural backgrounds in our neighborhood gathered. ...celebrating the differences...

...by participating in the storytelling contest. Kids from several countries were joining the contest. It's 5-member group...telling a story in 5 different languages!

One of our friends' family took part in reliving the story about a relationship between an ant and a pigeon.

Children choirs....what's not to love?

I took.the.kids to see all.of those.

Oh...we participated in the same event 3 years ago when we got the 1st prize^^

Ok....winners announcement. ...and my wife...becoming one of the jurors...

..coming on stage....

....giving the certificates to some winners.

..it's a great moment for some.

...and ...well...

Anyhow. .it's a celebration for all.

We Won the Grand Prize at Story Telling Contest

Well, who would've expected that we won the grand prize of story telling contest (4회 세계동화구연)competing with other fellow contestants from other countries? It was such a thrilling experience. 

Ok, we started off by showing Indonesian folktale called "Timun Emas" or 'Golden Cucumber' or in Korean "황금 오이".

Even, we got ourselves on one page review of Jesoen Ilbo 조선일보 the Children section.

(See our video on YouTube below)

This has been a great memory for all of us to be involved in such an event.

The story goes something like any other folktales where magical creatures in this case: monster called Buto Ijo or green ogre came to grant a wish of a woman (called Mbok Srini) who wished to have a daughter. He did give her a promise of giving her a small child born out of a cucumber seed. ..with a terrible price..that he would come back when the child ( a girl ) turned  7 and the mother had to give her back so as the ogre could eat her...

Appalled by the terrible consequences, she asked for help from a holy man who then gave her four pockets of cucumber seed, needles, salt, and shrimp paste. 

Upon the visit of the Buto Ijo, Mbok Srini asked her daughter (Golden Cucumber) to run away and fight the Buto Ijo by throwing each pocket one at a time until she could finally defeat the Ogre.

....... 

Once again, teamed up with my wife, two daughters (Meity, Eyra, and Freya)... and my friend and his wife (Wawan and Ulfa), we managed to represent Indonesia in this 4th installment of world folktale story telling contest held in Dongdaemun, Seoul.

Worth to remember? Indeed.