Bradford For Everyone and partners celebrate Mikulas, St Nicholas Day!

Bradford For Everyone and partners celebrate Mikulas, St Nicholas Day!

Happy Mikulas and Happy St Nicholas Day to everyone.

Connecting Roma, Bradford For Everyone and Bradford Council worked in partnership with communities to celebrate Mikulas in Bradford District. This event was to recognise the large Eastern European and in particular Roma Community who live and work in our district.

Many of our residents originate from European countries, such as Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Poland and Romania

St Nicholas Day is celebrated wider throughout the world and sometimes on different days, such as the 5 December and 19 December. We would like to wish everyone who has celebrated or is celebrating this special day at another time, a happy St Nicholas Day.

To mark the occasion the Council, with Connecting Roma, Bradford Everyone partners hosted a special Mikulas (St Nicholas Day) event on Monday 6 December, 4pm to 6pm in City Park, Bradford. There were food stalls, climbing wall, band and other performers. Everyone was welcomed.

Leader of Bradford Council, Cllr Susan Hinchliffe, said: “This event brings us together as one community, sharing in the rich diversity we are so proud of in Bradford District. This is a chance to learn and share this celebration and wish everyone a happy St Nicholas Day with their families and most of all the young people who will be enjoying this time.

“Our Stronger Communities team will be there, working with members of the community to make sure that Bradford District is place where everyone feels they belong.

“We recently launched our Bradford District Shared Values which were put together as one community identifying the values we have in common – We Share, We Care. We Protect and We Respect.

“This event echoes these values, that in Bradford District we come together to celebrate as one and share in each other’s special moments throughout the year.

“We are lucky in Bradford to have a richly diverse community where we have the opportunity to take part in so many wonderful occasions with each other.

Cllr Abdul Jabar, Executive Member for Stronger Communities at Bradford Council, said: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has made this event possible, including Connecting Roma and I’d like to send all Roma and European people living and celebrating in the district my warmest wishes.

“We are a Critical Thinking District which our “Make Sure It Adds Up” Campaign promotes. We can all learn more and this event is a great opportunity to learn about a celebration which is important to our Roma Community and many more from across Europe and wider afield.”

Daniel Balaz, Head of Service at Connecting Roma, said: “Connecting Roma C.I.C is very happy to gain support from Bradford Council and Bradford for Everyone which has enabled us to host a Traditional European Celebration.

“As a member of the Roma community and a resident of Bradford City, I am very excited to share this event with the wider community. We are so privileged to have such a diverse City where we are able to share such amazing celebrations, events, food and culture from different regions around the world here in Bradford.

“We hope that this event will bring communities of Bradford together and not only for that day but for all the days to come.

“The European Roma community have now become part of this City and want to showcase their traditions for everyone to enjoy. We look forward to working on many more projects and events to further positively impact this great City and make our European Roma community feel welcomed and valued.”

Thank you to West Yorkshire Police for their collaboration on this event, working with their Stronger Communities Team in Bradford and their New and Emerging Communities Officer.

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