Best ways to embrace winter magic in Baku

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

The New Year is fast approaching and most of us are getting ready for this celebratory night.

The atmosphere of celebration, carnival, and universal joy are reigning literally everywhere.

Night decorations on city streets and the new year trees glittering with colored lights create a winter wonderland ambiance.

In Azerbaijan, a festive mood reigns everywhere, especially in Baku. Hundreds of thousands of dazzling lights brighten up all streets in the capital city.

AZERNEWS invites its readers to get in the holiday mood, walking through Baku.

Heart-melting winter charity fair

Every year, the traditional charity fair "Cold hands, warm heart" welcomes Baku residents and city guests to Fountain Square.

Since 2013, Nargis Fund has been holding an annual charity fair and helps dozens of families from all over Azerbaijan.

Like every year, the financial support of sponsors and all funds collected from the rental of houses installed at the fair are spent on the treatment and surgeries of children suffering from various diseases.

The winter market offers a raft of exciting and uplifting entertainment. The fair visitors enjoy a variety of stalls, food, music, and live entertainment.

For the first time, a fear room and a 4D cinema function at the fair. At different locations around the fair, guests can meet elves, inspired by the book Elf on the Shelf: Christmas Traditions by American writer Carole Ebersold and her daughter Chanda Bell. This story was written in 2005 and soon after conquered the whole world.

Stilt walkers, jugglers, animators, talented musicians, and fairy characters flock to the New Year market to entertain kids, who are always looking forward to the most unusual and magical time of the year.

Stunning gingerbread town

Winter holidays are incomplete without gingerbread men. NARGIS magazine has created a holiday spirit with its gingerbread town.

The project idea belongs to the editor-in-chief of NARGIS magazine, Ulviyya Mahmud. The opening of the gingerbread town coincided with the ten-year anniversary of NARGIS magazine.

Some of the best confectioners were involved in the creation of the gingerbread town. The installation consumed 35 kg of flour, 12 kg of butter, 180 eggs, 20 kg of honey, 4 kg of ginger, 2 kg of cardamom and cinnamon, etc. A total of 101 kg of gingerbread dough was used for the installation.

Gingerbread houses, people and Christmas trees, a skating rink and a railway, clouds, and balloons under the dome delight both adults and children. The top of the installation, enclosed in a glass ball, is decorated by a Christmas tree.

Fantastic holiday shows full of winter magic

During the holiday season, theaters offer the most fascinating shows full of winter magic.

Pyotr Tchaikovsky's ballet "Nutcracker" is a kind of New Year gift to all spectators.

The ballet is based on E.T.A. Hoffmann's 1816 fairy tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King", which tells the story of a little girl who goes to the Land of Sweets on Christmas Eve. Ivan Vsevolozhsky and Marius Petipa adapted Hoffmann's story for the ballet. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote the music.

The ballet "Nutcracker" is included in the treasury of world ballet art. Traditionally, the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater will stage "Nutcracker" in December and January.

In January, the State Song Theater will please its little guests with the musical "Frozen" based on Disney's Oscar-winning film.

And if you think that is all, it is not. The City of Winds offers an ample number of unique entertainment activities throughout all winter.