On September 3, Baikal Day supported by The Fund for Protection of Lake Baikal started in Ulan-Ude. The Baikal Day is traditionally celebrated in Buryatia, the Irkutsk Region and the Zabaikalye Territory on the second Sunday of September. This year the Town Day will be held on September 9-10, and so the authorities decided to honour Baikal a week earlier.

The Baikal Day was organized by the Ministry of Natural Resources of Butyatia and the Fund for Protection of Lake Baikal. Despite the changeable weather, hundreds of Ulan-Ude citizens came to the Soviet Square to participate in celebrations. The most proactive and responsible citizens took blue bandages, brown-paper bags for waste, gloves and rakes from the representatives of the Fund and went to clean up the shores of the native town from the garbage left by the less responsible. 　
“Our planet is very small and very fragile. This is why the environmental consciousness should be cultivated from the early years. One should learn to clean up after oneself,” said Mikhail Slipenchuk, the Chairman of the Fund for Protection of Lake Baikal Guardianship Board.

Unofficially, the celebrations were started by the youth of Ulan-Ude on September 2. Following the international mainstream the young people had a flashmob at the Soviet Square: they formed a huge living word ‘Baikal’ and then immediately left in different directions.
The next day there were entertainments to any liking: chess players enjoyed amateur tournaments, beauty connoisseurs had their pictures taken with the most beautiful women of the Buryatia Republic, intellectuals competed in the knowledge of Baikal, craftsmen gave free master-classes in handicraft. In the evening everyone gathered at a concert of local celebrities.

The Director of the Fund for Protection of Lake Baikal noted that “It is important to popularize the Baikal Day. The essential point is that the issues of Baikal have attention of publicity, especially the youth. All the events here are aimed to teach people to care for the nature”.