On May 27, 2021, the opening ceremony of the II International Forum of researchers of the Belarusian fairy tale was held at the NAS of Belarus. The event, which takes place simultaneously both in real and online, is attended by leading researchers of the fairytale epic from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Poland, Abkhazia and France.

As the Chief Scientific Secretary Andrey Ivanets noted in his welcoming speech on behalf of the Presidium of the NAS of Belarus, “the Belarusian fairy-tale epic is distinguished by plot and ideological-thematic diversity, beautiful and figurative language. It is rightfully included in the world treasury of fairy tales and stands next to such unique phenomena as the Arabian “Thousand and One Night”, German fairy tales processed by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, a series of Indian fairy tales. Scientists have calculated that about 50 plot types of Belarusian fairy tales have no analogues in the international index of fairy tales”.

Andrey Ivanets stress that “Belarusian fairy tales are the wisdom, philosophy and worldview of the entire nation. Therefore, they deserve the closer attention of modern scholars, writers and publishes. It is necessary to hold such forums on a regular basis, to study the folk tale more deeply and to popularize it more widely in our society”.

On May 27-28, 2021, the Center the Belarusian Culture, Language and Literature researches of the NAS of Belarus holds the II International Forum of researchers of the Belarusian fairy tale. Within the framework of the forum, the results of the children’s competition of the performers of the Belarusian fairy tale, performances of the masters of fairy genre of the older generation from different regions of Belarus, a master class on vytinanka “Fairy tales from paper” by the national master Natalia Sukhaya will be held. Participants of the event will take part in the round table “Modern artistic fairy tale: between fiction and truth”, get acquainted with exhibitions and presentations of thematic publications, unique archival collections of fairy tales from the collection of folklore of the Institute of Art History, Ethnography and Folklore of the NAS of Belarus, the fund of folklore materials of BSU, the collections of Pollack State University.

The First International Forum of researchers of the Belarusian fairy tale was held at the NAS of Belarus on May 17-18, 2018 and brought together scientists from Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Ukraine and Bulgaria.