The National Carpet Festival has been organized at Baku Engineering University (BEU) on May 5-Carpet Weaver's Day by the Design Department.

Delivering an opening speech at the festival, which aims to instill Azerbaijani carpet art in the younger generation and instill love for the ancient art form in them, BEU Rector Yagub Piriyev emphasized the importance of the event. Noting that the professional holiday of Carpet Weaver's Day was established by the Decree signed by President Ilham Aliyev in 2016, the Rector drew attention to the state's attention and care for the protection and promotion of our national and spiritual values. He also mentioned the valuable contributions made by First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva to the preservation of carpet weaving, and the fact that, on her initiative, Azerbaijani carpet weaving was included in the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage 15 years ago. Touching upon the establishment of the foundations of carpet weaving by the famous carpet expert Latif Karimov and his extensive research in this direction, Yagub Piriyev pointed out that it was planned to open a new specialty at BEU in order to keep our folk art alive and to train a new generation of carpet weavers and artists.

Later, the participants got acquainted with more than 100 exhibits displayed at the festival, the stages from the initial history of the Azerbaijani carpet art to the present day. Moreover, detailed information was provided about examples of felt art from the oldest types of art, mats, pileless carpets such as palaz, kilim, zili, sumakh, shadda, jecim, pile carpets from Baku, Shirvan, Karabakh, Sheki, Guba, as well as other regions, carpet products such as at chulu, khurjun, mafrash, orken, including looms.

During the festival, where the preparation of classic carpets and designs, and the carpet weaving process were demonstrated, the participants watched carpet paintings made by students of BEU and the Azerbaijan Academy of Arts and listened to their opinions.

The festival, which also included household items reflecting our ancient customs and traditions, including decorations, sweets related to our national cuisine, as well as national dances and music, created a good mood among the participants.

Public Relations Department