December is one of my favorite months of the year. From the first snow to the holidays, it’s a month when winter is still magical and there are plenty of occasions to meet up with friends and family to enjoy endless mugs of hot chocolate. It’s also a time when all of the religions have all of the holidays, making it even more special to just about everyone. Continue reading “Have Yourself A Merry Little New Year”
Today is September 23rd, and it marks a somewhat unusual holiday, one of a type that is becoming common across Central Asia: National Kyrgyz Language Day. Perhaps it seems self evident that the national language of Kyrgyzstan would be Kyrgyz, but it’s not quite that simple thanks to the country’s history. And to understand that history, we’ve got to do a little bit of linguistic anthropology. Let’s dive in. Continue reading “Language Lessons: National Kyrgyz Language Day”
The first week of May in Kyrgyzstan is filled with holidays, so many so that the government often will just declare the entire week a holiday. This year, because May 1st fell on a Sunday, we had holidays on May 2-5, and again on May 9. May 2nd was for the observance of May Day, May 5th is Constitution Day, and May 9th is Victory Day. May 3 and 4th we were given off just because. So, all of Team Osh came together to head out into the countryside for some hiking, exploring, friend time, and of course, carbs.
In the US, the more militarily minded of families tends to observe in some capacity V-E Day, or Victory In Europe Day, or the equivalent from the Pacific campaign of World War II. But I’ve never seen anything remotely resembling the scale of the celebrations here of Victory Day, which marks the same occasion. You might have seen a few pictures or video clips on this on American television or news websites, but seeing it here from within the former USSR has been a very different experience.
Part of the reason for this may be that this is the 70th anniversary, which might command a larger celebration than otherwise, but part is simply because to the countries that fought on the Eastern Front paid a much larger price in lives; the USSR accounts for something like half of the deaths of the entire war, more even than Germany. Stalingrad did not have a happy ending (although it now has the world’s tallest statue, which is really both spectacularly beautiful and a marvel of engineering. It’s also sliding off its foundation slightly).
Over the past few days, we’ve seen a lot of Russian fighter jets flying over Bishkek and over the surrounding areas preparing for aerial demonstrations, and everyone was talking about the parade and the celebrations for days. Despite the rain, on TV we watched downton Bishkek fill up, and the newly minted Prime Minister give a speech about the holiday in the main square before a large military parade went by and the fighters did a fly-by.
The real spectacle came on Russian television, which broadcasts several Russian-language channels here, right alongside China Central Television Russia.
Yesterday was by far one of the most spontaneous and interesting days we have had since arriving in Tajikistan. June 27th is National Unity Day, and marks the anniversary of the signing of the peace accord that ended Tajikistan’s brutal civil war that devastated the country from 1992-1997. On that day 16 years ago, representatives from the government and the opposition met in Moscow under UN supervision to sign an accord and begin a process of reconciliation that seems to me to have brought a national pride and unity to the country. I’m sure that somewhere, people are unhappy, but that’s the way that countries work. In any case, it is an important day to Tajiks, and serves as a solemn reminder of their country’s suffering on its journey to independence. Continue reading “Tajik National Unity Day”
