While most of you are celebrating Easter this weekend, Central Asia is celebrating a holiday called Nauruz. Nauruz has its origins in ancient Persia and Zoroastrianism and honors the first day of spring or, in the ancient calendar, the new year. So while many of the holidays here are really leftover Soviet holidays (like International Women's Day), Nauruz is a chance to celebrate being Central Asian... with all the kitchiness that comes with that! There are many traditions associated with this holiday that are followed in the villages, including a ritual housecleaning for the new year, and certain customs of visiting friends, family, and neighbors. Here in the city, though, the main event was a big street festival yesterday. They shut down several main streets and the city set up a huge block party on one of the central squares. There was a stage with Kazakh musical performances all day, they had yurts set up and big inflatable replicas of "traditional" Kazakh things, like musical instruments and camels. And of course, there were lots of people dressed in traditional Kazakh clothes for the occasion. The crowd spilled over into the adjacent park, where some people had set up shashlyk (kebab) grills and were selling food and souvenirs. Because the holiday fell on a Saturday, the "official" state holiday is on Monday, so I get another three-day weekend. Woohoo!
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