Russia’s International Women’s Day Celebration is Off to a Good Start: Flash Mobs Offer Congratulations
Hours are left before the most anticipated holiday of spring. Drivers are organizing flash mobs. To congratulate women in Moscow, they arranged number 8 of bright headlamps. In Voronezh, they added a variegated flower. Hundreds of cars in Irkutsk formed a phrase "Happy Women's Day, Mom!" Women will be congratulated all over Russia, By tradition, road troopers will offer flowers to women, whom they stop for a check.
Sergey Zyblev is reporting on gifts to make this year.
People are buying bouquets, locks, and even trucks of flowers. The rush in flower shops is picking up pace. Tender irises for colleagues, sunny gerberas for bosses and business partners, roses, the flower of passion, for the beloved. But tulips, the symbol of spring, are the most wanted. By tradition, tulips for my wife.
This floral salon in Sochi believes that a spring bunch must be made of fresh, seasonal flowers. Local farmers have a lot of them by March. Anemone, ranunculus, tulip, irises, freesia, so, the whole range of spring flowers.
Famous singer Oleg Gazmanov has his own secret of how to choose a bouquet for the holiday. Peonies, poppies, some leaves of fern look unusual. The most important thing is your mood while choosing flowers. This bouquet is for his mother-in-law.
Oleg Gazmanov, People's artist of Russia: "It's important that it doesn't look trite, it must show that you thought about her. So, I'll try to offer something that will provoke good feelings. Wow, very beautiful".
Floriculturists start working in the fall to make shops burst with plenty of flowers by March, 8. This flower farm in the Krasnodar Region has grown 200,000 tulips by the holiday.
"This breed is called Malaysia. Today we'll pluck it. We'll send it to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky".
The Krasnodar and the Rostov Regions, Adygeya are the most flowery parts of Russia. Most flowers are imported. Tulips and golden-daisies come from Holland, roses are brought from Ecuador and Columbia. Orchids usually come from Thailand. Israel exports asters and gerberas. Lilies come from Italy.
Flowers usually reach the customer by plane. Airports call such flights 'floral'.
Mikhail Sentyakov, head of the Koltsovo airport customs: "There are usually 2 flights per week. By March, 8, there are also charters. We've had 2 additional floral flights, meaning that there are no other goods on board. The plane carries about 100 tons of flowers. So, the plane is full of flowers".
After a 5-hour flight, 160 tons of Dutch roses and tulips arrive in Ekaterinburg. To provide all Ural women with a bouquet for March, 8, there will be 3 more flights. Federal veterinary and phytosanitary watchdogs check flowers before these are sold.
Flowers are still the most popular gift, but, on Women's Day, men long for something unusual increasingly often.
A classic set — flowers for a woman, sweets for kids — is now revisited. Beauty paired with delicious treats is now trendy.
"It's the healthiest bouquet: strawberry, some greenery and a lot of fantasy. It's tasty, fragrant and has lots of vitamins, which comes quite useful in spring".
But, these aren't all the unusual ideas. Even more exotic bouquets are offered here. They're made of fish, sausages, cheese, and even burgers. Video tutorials how to make flowers of socks are gaining ground on the Internet.
"Today I'll make a gift of socks, a bouquet of roses".
However, whatever the bouquet, it's essential to offer it with good emotions and words. Then, even a modest mimosa branch will bring joy and spring mood.
Sergey Zyblev, Vladimir Ivanenko, Vlada Makarycheva, Elena Galeeva, and Evgeniya Velikaya for Vesti.