Holidays & Traditions of Kazakhstan.
Source for this section: http://www.president.kz/
NAURYZ
- a holiday of spring, is the most momentous and ancient festivity of
Oriental nations. In fact, it is a New Year's Eve according to the
ancient Oriental calendar. It has yet another name "Ulys Kuni"("The
first day of the New Year") or "Ulystyn uly kuni" ("The great day of the
people").
They say that the more you celebrate the Nauryz holiday, the greater your success throughout the year.
When
the holiday comes, Kazakhs put on festive clothes, pay visits to each
other, and exchange congratulations, best wishes and good luck in the
coming year. The festivities are accompanied by widespread merry-making,
games, traditional horse-races, and various other activities.
Traditionally
they cook and make all sorts of tasty meals during the holidays,
symbolizing well-being and abundance in the coming year. The feast is
usually served at noon, and is preceded and followed by a prayer in
honor of the fore-fathers. At the conclusion of the feast, the eldest of
those present gives his blessings (bata) so that prosperity will be
with the family.
When Kazakhs celebrate Nauryz, presence of the
number seven is essential - it embodies seven days of the week – the
time units of universal eternity. In front of aksakals ("white beards"or
old men) they put seven bowls with the drink of "Nauryz-kozhe",
prepared of seven grades of seven types of cereals.
BERKUTCHI, or
“hunting with a golden eagle,” is a tradition that has been practiced
for ten centuries. The Kazakh belief is that presenting a fledgling
hunting bird to a boy is tantamount to wishing him to be a brave and
strong young fellow.
Training a golden eagle is a rare and
painstaking art. The bird just caught (photo at left) is being slowly
trained to its master (a berkutchi). The man training the bird doesn't
sleep for several nights with the bird being subjected to similar
discomfort. First, the bird must take food (pieces of raw meat) from its
master's hand only. When the eagle gets used to the hunter, its horse
and its dog, it undergoes the next phase of training: first it "hunts"
stuffed foxes and only after mastering that will it then proceed with
real hunting.