This festival is one of the main components of the larger project called District Town K, which is aimed at reviving Krapivna as the center of culture, education, and tourism in the Tula Region, the whole town an outdoor museum that retains the character of a district town from the end of the XIX - beginning of the XX centuries. A celebration in honor of nettle is held in the village each year at the beginning of summer, when it takes on its medicinal properties and stings like a flame. This celebration is meant to help bring Krapivna back its former glory, like an enchanted mirror showing reflecting Krapivna's XIX image: kind, smiling police officers, warm provincial folk, and tractor drivers jumping over a burning rope (one of the more unusual performances). All thanks to Lev Nikolaevich (Tolstoy)! Translator's note: the village name "Krapivna" has the same root as the Russian word for nettle, "krapiva". |