Humorina (, ) is an annual festival of

humor Humour ( Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids i ...

held in

Odesa Odesa, also spelled Odessa, is the third most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, on and around

April Fools' Day April Fools' Day or April Fool's Day (rarely called All Fools' Day) is an annual custom on the 1st of April consisting of practical jokes, hoaxes, and pranks. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fool " at the recipient. ...

(1 April) since 1973. The festival is marked by a large parade in the city center, performances by musicians, comedians, clowns and a large number of fun-dressed people on the streets. These days April Fools' Days' pranks are spread by people and local mass media.

History

It was created in 1972 by the Odesa KVN team after the all- Union KVN contests and the corresponding TV show were discontinued. Young members of the team in protest decided to come up with a special festival of laughter. The name arose by analogy with the Kinomarina (English: Filmarina) film festival taking place at that time, and so the name appeared – Humorina. Such a pun was characteristic of the satirical performances of comedians on the KVN TV show. The festival became so popular that more and more people gathered for it every year. Frightened by a huge, self-organizing crowd, the city authorities banned the celebration of Laughter Day. The name "Humorina" was proposed by Oleg Stashkevich – one of the founders and a member of the Odesa KVN team. The first slogan of Humorina was "Odesans of all countries – unite!", a paraphrase of the famous slogan of the

communists Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, d ...

: "Workers of the world – unite!"

Today

Today the Humorina includes a lot of city events celebrating April Fools' Day. In Soviet times, the main driving force of the festival was the Odesa KVN team. In the early 1990s, the World Club of Odesa and its president Mikhail Zhvanetsky initiated the return of the festival. Now this has changed and comic troupe the "Masks" have taken the baton. The "Masks" was a well known TV show in the 1990s. Later they organized their own theater, House of Clowns, which still continues in Odesa. Today these people are leaders and the main power of the festival and April Fools' Day humoristic events. The "Masks" organized a separate festival, Comediada, that starts four days before 1 April. Since 2010 with the celebration of April Fools' Day the International Festival of Clowns and Mimes has taken place in Odesa.

Facts

In 2019, Humorina festival was dedicated to the centenary of the Odesa Film Studio. At traditional parade in the city center, one of the platforms presented the famous Soviet film D'Artagnan and Three Musketeers by Georgi Yungvald-Khilkevich and showed original costumes from the movie. Since the first run for mayor of the city, a candidate from the Internet party of Ukraine, the regular participants in the traditional city procession, became Darth Vader and the imperial stormtroopers from the movie ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

''.

References

External links

Humorina website

Esperanto-Humorina

Comediada 2020
{{coord missing, Ukraine Culture in Odesa Russian humour Ukrainian humour Festivals in Ukraine April Fools' Day Entertainment in Ukraine Tourist attractions in Odesa Recurring events established in 1973 Spring (season) in Ukraine