Today is International Women's Day. This holiday was invented by the Communists (actually, originally invented in New York) to celebrate the achievements of women. (For more on the history of Women's Day, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women%27s_Day) At this point, it is a semi-major holiday throughout the former Soviet Union and mostly involves giving flowers, chocolate, and perfume to mothers, sisters, wives, girlfriends, etc. Basically, it is Valentine's Day and Mother's Day all wrapped up into one. Although the holiday is officially today, March 8th, the long weekend started here yesterday. It seemed as though no one was at work yesterday, but instead running around to buy gifts for their family members and friends. Kiosks selling flowers cropped up across town (see the picture) and the streets were filled with men carrying cakes and flower bouquets. Since it falls on a weekend this year, the official state holiday is Monday so businesses and government offices are closed officially until Tuesday. I'm a little out of the loop, though, and only found that out last night... I'm still trying to figure out if they observe Daylight Savings here...
The students at the National Conservatory put on a free concert yesterday afternoon in honor of the holiday. One of my friends here is an ethnomusicologist from UCLA and is affiliated with the conservatory, so she invited a couple of us to attend with her. The performances varied a lot, but were all really excellent. I was so impressed! One student played a Bach piece on the organ, another one played the accordian, a choir sang an African American gospel spiritual, and the orchestra played Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Also included were several pieces of traditional Kazakh music, performed by students dressed in "traditional" Kazakh costumes. In case some of you have been puzzled by the "national" costumes I have brought home from my travels, I caught one of these traditional performances on camera. See, people actually do wear them on select occasions!
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