About Us

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Mission Statement

Russian House Kedry creates a venue for development and support of linguistic traditions in households where Russian language is a part of their family culture.

There are our projects in details.

Seasonal Festivals.

There are four of them: Winter ("Kolyada"), Spring ("Maslenitsa") , Summer ("Kupala") and Fall (Harvest Festival).
Like in most other cultures, there were some traditional holidays in Russia when people sang the songs, played the games together, shared food and their hopes and struggles.
At our festivals, which take place approximately close in time to the real Russian seasonal holidays, as they were observed in the villages for centuries, we teach our guests traditional songs, games, dances and crafts, as well as put together potluck tables with Russian food and silent auctions with handmade items like towels, shirts, belts, Easter eggs etc.
We provide the descriptions of games and other traditions both in Russian and English.
Admission is free but donations are greatly appreciated. Usually our festivals take place in Santa Clara County parks (Mountain View, Saratoga), Sanborn Park Hostel (Saratoga), Del Valle Park (Livermore).
Our goal is the participation of the whole family. Children can see their parents playing games and dancing with joy and amusement and they feel that this is something that unites family - those songs, games, crafts. Therefore, they feel an interest in the language, history and culture of Russia.

Classes for children.

We have provided 10-class cycles during a school year and in our Summer Camp. Once a week during school year we meet with children and their parents to play the games, sing the songs and do the crafts. Right now we have one group of 1- to 3-year-olds. We like to have our classes outdoors so if the weather permits we meet in the grassy fields of local parks. By having a parent or a grandparent and siblings (older and younger) of "students" at our classes we provide not only single-time entertainment but an attractive way to spend free time at home, at parties and so on by playing games, singing songs and making different crafts based on Russian traditions and with the use of Russian language.

Workshops on various components of the Russian culture.

People who are interested in different aspects of Russian culture can attend our workshops on such topics as: Russian traditional painting, costume making, cooking, music, poetry, songs, games etc. The challenge of this activity, however, is that most of the workshops are provided in Russian. Unlike children's classes where even non-Russian-speaking child can participate in games and crafts, the workshops for grown-ups assume at least the basic Russian skills for all participants. Otherwise, on specific circumstances a translator could be provided.

Vocal Group.

For presenting Russian traditions at our festivals, volunteers of RHK learn a lot of folk songs. And some of us want to improve their singing skills and perform our repertoire for wide community of Bay Area. Our vocal group brings together people who are interested in Russian traditional singing and performing at the concerts, at different folk festivals, at schools and other places.

Charitable performances for other organizations and groups.

On the one hand the community around us is always looking for interesting entertaining and educational cultural events. On the other - there are some organizations who work in the field of promoting Russian heritage in California by different ways: Fort Ross State Historical Park, Russian Orthodox Church (Saratoga), Balka Balalaika Band, etc. In both cases, we are happy to offer our time and resources for meaningful cooperation. Sometimes we get invited to perform to the local schools for various International Fairs and other such programs. Usually, for all those events, we provide performance of Russian traditional singing, dancing and introduce our costumes.

Sometime in a future, we plan to provide a new service: Russian Library and Book Exchange days. Many people in Russian community want to donate books in "good hands"; therefore, we think that organization of the library where everybody could donate, borrow or buy Russian books for less would be very useful for community.