Almost 20 countries were represented at this year’s International Semmelweis Carnival, which is the largest international student event held at Semmelweis University. The carnival was first organized 8 years ago in order to support the building of relations between Hungarian and international students.
During the carnival Dr. Attila Mócsai, Director of the Foreign Language Secretariat, and Dr. Andrea Dorottya Székely, Associate Professor at the Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embriology held an opening speech.
“I am proud that so many students coming from different parts of the world with different language and cultural background have chosen Budapest and Semmelweis University as the location and institution for their higher-education studies. One of the reasons for this is the international reputation of our education, which is proven by the fact that our institution has recently been listed among the best 300 universities in the category of life sciences and medicine. I believe tolerance and the acceptance of other cultures are very important, in which the multiculturalism of the university and the organization of events similar to the International Semmelweis Carnival are very helpful for both students and teachers.”, emphasized Dr. Attila Mócsai.
As the opening ceremony of the carnival, students performed dance and music performances by displaying the elements of their own nationality and culture: among others there was a traditional Palestine folk dance performance, a Hungarian folk dance performance from the Somogy region, also a German student held a guitar concert. Afterwards DJs from Nigeria, Israel and Hungary showed their music sets, which also meant to represent the international multiculturalism of the event. According to the traditions the Multicultural Food Festival was held this year, too, where the participants could taste the specialties of more than 20 nations, including Hungarian traditional meals, and for the first time Dutch traditional meals were also served.
The International Semmelweis Carnival is organized around a specific theme every year. This year the scenery of the event held at Nagyvárad tér Theoretical Building took the participants into the world of science-fiction movies. The carnival was organized by the members of the Students’ Union, the Instructor Self-Active Group, International Student Association of Semmelweis (ISAS) and the Deutschsprachige Studentenvertretung Semmelweis (DSVS).
Eszter Keresztes
Photo: Zoltán Adrian
Translated by: Katalin Romhányi
Gallery
