Ceremony to present Spiritual Revival awards, special prizes

Address of Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko at the ceremony to present Spiritual Revival awards, special prizes for people of culture and art, and the special prize Belarusian Sport Olympus

Dear friends,

Today’s evening represents a continuation of the lightest, most familial, and most beautiful holiday Christmas.

The prizes we present on these winter days every year are a token of the original traditions that connect ages and generations. A token to the spiritual force of Belarusians, who are wise and hardworking, Belarusians, who love their native land and honor the ancestors.

The first laureates of the Spiritual Revival awards were honored in Belarus more than 25 years ago. Back then we couldn’t even fathom what challenges we may face in the fight for our spirituality, for our historical legacy, and our way of life.

And we couldn’t imagine how relevant the tradition to award people, who dedicate themselves to the noble work of preserving our spiritual origins, will be.

But we’ve always known and today we recognize particularly acutely that all the material and immaterial values created by the Belarusian nation act as staples, on which basis the national statehood was born and developed.

They are in works of the first enlighteners of the Belarusian land, in the temples, palaces, and museums built by our architects, in works of music, pictorial art, poetry, and prose created by our talented compatriots.

They are in heroic deeds of the winner nation, which gifted us peace, independence, the very right to live; heroic deeds of the hardworking nation, which revived the native land after it was scorched by fire.

They are in Orthodox Christianity. Over 1,000 years ago it united Slavs into an ancient state and taught them mercy, love for peace, and love for their neighbors.

Today we understand that national cultures and traditions cannot be adapted to match a unified standard, that the world is beautiful thanks to its diversity.

Apart from understanding it we confirm it with the history of our state where people of different faiths and different ethnic origins have lived for over a century in accord, while enriching all of us spiritually. And if there is accord and respect, then there will be peace.

We realize that our example in this regard is a genuine challenge for the project bent on global unification to match ultrafashionable values and so-called trends forced upon the entire world.

We understand that this cultural expansion (it is also called soft expansion) will be followed by not exactly soft, I’d even say, quite hard consequences for independent states: the loss of statehood and sovereignty. The loss of oneself as a nation.

It is necessary to remember that the future of our kids depends on how we safeguard the purity of the native tongue, on what holidays and symbols we allow to enter our home.

If we want them to live freely and independently in our land the way we do, we should first and foremost learn how to differentiate native traditions from foreign ones.

This is why the annual ceremony to award laureates of the year prizes is primarily a token of recognition of all those who work in the humanitarian and cultural field, those who preserve our spiritual origins.

Without an exaggeration, you play a leading role in matters of ensuring national security of the Republic of Belarus.

Dear winners of Spiritual Revival awards, special prizes for people of culture and art, and the special prize Belarusian Sport Olympus,

Your creative accomplishments represent an invigorating wellspring that fills the treasury of national culture.

I know well that you don’t do your work in order to get awards or material benefits. Your professional and life path has been chosen by your heart. This is why you are worthy of high praise and deep respect of the people like no one else.

With your spiritual, creative, and professional accomplishments you create the future of our Belarus. I am very proud of you and deeply grateful for your work.

With particular respect I’d like to say a few words about today’s laureates.

About the people, who are dedicated to their work and with their own example promote ideals of mercy and kindness in the contemporary society, raise young Belarusians as patriots, and pass their great and sincere love for the native land onto them.

By implementing cultural and educational projects of special importance, you help preserve historical truth and eternal legacy of the Belarusian nation.

Belarusian Sport Olympus awards are bestowed on those who have reached the peaks of sport mastery, on those who have confirmed their outstanding skills with medals during top competitions.

On those who have dedicated their lives to training athletes and produce great results in their line of work.

Dear laureates,

I am happy to congratulate on getting these awards. May these prizes and awards become not only bright results of last year but also a stimulus for new accomplishments and victories in the name of prosperity of beloved Belarus.

At this solemn moment I wish you peace, well, good health, new accomplishments for the benefit of the native country, artistic discoveries and sport victories in the new year of 2023.

Happy New Year, dear friends!