RT @mikecommito: 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦….

The reporting seems credible – and stories of Mennonite drug-runners are apparently evergreen ("even they have not escaped the pull of the drug cartels"!) – but statements like this, and later historical inaccuracies, do diminish one's confidence in a piece of journalism.

Uh .

Congratulations, Blake! It was a pleasure to work with you on this.

Tonight's Sängerfest is part of a schedule of events commemorating the Russländer centenary across Canada. There are more events to come in the next week and a half, from Manitoba to BC:

Today the Sängerfest tradition is mostly a thing of the past. I don't know if we'll see another performance of this nature and scale again. I'm happy for the opportunity to participate as an audience member.

Mennonites began this tradition in Russia in 1893. Sängerfests stopped during the civil war years, but resumed as early as 1921. In a period of upheaval, singing together provided a sense of comfort and community.

Smaller Sängerfests used to be held in barns and machine sheds, before communities built churches and halls large enough. They were usually held in late spring or early summer. Choirs were composed mainly of young people. The festivals were often a social highlight of the year.

An account of a Sängerfest in Winkler in 1938 described the "sea of cars" that brought an estimated crowd of 4000–5000, and streets that were "almost impossible to get through." Half the audience had to stand outside the massive tent that had been erected. (Pic: a similar scene.)

I'm glad the Free Press included this photo. Large-scale Sängerfests, some bigger than tonight's, and smaller ones used to happened regularly. This photo shows the 800 singers plus and orchestra who performed for an audience of over 4000 at the old Winnipeg Auditorium.

It should be a powerful evening. Three choirs will perform, including a 230-voice adult choir, singing favourite hymns and choral pieces from the past, as well as contemporary and specially commissioned works. A capacity audience means about 2300 people will be in attendance.

Tonight the centenary of the immigration of 21,000 Mennonites from the USSR to Canada between 1923 and 1930 will be commemorated with a Sängerfest (choral festival) at the Centennial Concert Hall. Tickets are "sold out" (they were free).

It was a privilege (and fun!) to contribute to this project in its early days. Congratulations to everyone involved for this accomplishment. The Archives Unleashed Project has produced valuable tools and resources for scholarly computing.

RT @CTMStudies: "It makes it so much more real when you're actually there," said @AileenFriesen. "It's something different when you're actu….

RT @CTMStudies: Exactly 100 years ago today, 738 Mennonites boarded a train leaving Chortitza (present-day Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine), on their….

🤔 A is for Analogue, C is for Carte de visite. What's going on, @MBGovArchives and @ArchivesOntario?

I like to imagine the photo editor was being ironic by illustrating this with the picture of the Old Order man in his buggy.

On Anabaptist Historians today, @Rebeccacsjanzen leads off a series on Women Talking with a post gets into the issues of language and education I mentioned

Also, compared to LA, Steinbach might seem "tiny," but it's actually Manitoba's third-largest city! (If I was from there I probably would have noticed this first.).