Symbol of youths dreams

I have got the postcard from Russia - another card which is official postcrossing card:) This time the sender - Victoria - lives on St. Petersburg.

On the postcard we can not find nothing about  this wonderful city, but....we can see a symbol of youths dreams :)

The Scarlet Sails festival on the Neva is held approximately five years. On the 18th of June graduates from School with parents, friends and teachers come to the centre of the city and party all night :). The symbol of the youths dreams is...the ship with scarlet sails.

This festive  is the most massive and famous public event in St. Petersburg. Its title has originated from a romantic novel with the same name (1922) by Alexander Grin – the book, known practically to every Russian. Two main characters of this touching story are a young lady Assol, seeing in her dreams a captain, who one day will arrive to her sailing a ship with scarlet sails and the captain Gray, who had heard about Assol’s best wish and made it come true. When at school each of us associated him/herself with these charming persons.

Now everyone can see this fairy tale – a ship with the scarlet sails – which is the unforgettable event in the lives of St. Petersburg high school graduates, who celebrate their leaving high school with farewell parties.

This celebration was originally introduced in 1968 and was arranged for 10 years in succession, followed by a long break of having no this festivity and only in 2005 it was renewed.

Now the “Scarlet Sails” is a large-scale show, gathering thousands of spectators not only from Russia, but also from all over the world.


As you can see, this postcard travelled big distance and appeared in my mailbox quite fast:)