The Holidays are Here

Just like at home, in Kazakhstan, the wintertime is one of many festivals and traditional feasts. This weekend we will celebrate Kurban Ait. I found a little passage that explains the tradition waaay better than I could ever. This writer is telling about it from his point of view, so it is not me talking....  :) oh and the game of Kokpar does really exist, it's a very big deal here. There will be a huge festival in spring called Nauryz, and there will be multiple games of it then in Toraz.

I know for a fact that my family will slaughter a sheep as an offering on saturday. I probably will skip on the invitation to attend. They understand I can't really stomach the sight. 

Kurban Ait
Every family usually tried to slaughter a sheep for this holiday, and Kazakhs tried to prolong this event for several days. Preparing food beforehand, families would fry fat cakes and baursaks. They'd also buy new cloths for this occasion, prepare their harnesses, and clean their houses. It is hard to imagine how pleasant it was to ride a horse or go for a walk during this time of year. Ladies would wear their best clothes, laugh and joke with one another. It was great for a zhigit to ride nearby the beautiful ladies; to chat and joke with them. People would enjoy kokpar a national game in one place; close by one might see zhigits wrestling. Every yurt would be open, welcoming the visitor to have some meat or drink some tea or kumiss. It was also interesting to visit the bazaar. Earlier we said that; people prolonged this holiday because of kokpar. Kokpar is a national game, in which zhigits would be given a small goat and proceed to grasp it from each other while riding their horses. Struggling to maintain possession of the carcass, they'd ride far into the distance, returning sometimes only at night. If they returned too late to go to their aul, they might stay the night at the yurt of another contestant. Their host would slaughter for them a sheep to treat and entertain them, the next day their game would continue until their horses were too weary to continue.

Basically, Ait is another traditional feast dating back to Kazakh Nomadic days. Is is celebrated during the Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca and commemorates the willingness of Abraham to sacrafice his son Ishmael at the command of Allah. 

There will be lots of meat, sweets and just plain eating. In most houses there are sacrifices but for the most part, the game of Kokpar is left for Nauryz, when the weather is better. This description is a very very traditional view of the holiday. 

Tomorrow our classes will be shorter, only 40 minutes each and school will get out earlier to prepare for it. I also don't have to work this whole weekend! It is surely welcome. I will be getting together with the other american volunteers in the city for a thanksgiving celebration. My friends Nick and Corinne actually found a turkey! for one kilo it's about 900 tenge, or about 6 dollars. Not too bad I'd have to say. I am looking forward to it. I don't have too much else to add at this point. It did snow for the first time two days ago. I was in my class and came out and it was snowing. My fellow teachers came up to me and said, "congratulations on your first real snow day in Kazakhstan!". It definitely added some more beauty to my surroundings. The steppe doesn't have much to offer in the way of "natural" beauty. Especially when all the trees are bare. I will update again soon. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!