Nauriz

On March 22, the Kazakh national festival is held, marking the beginning of spring. Nauriz means “new year” in Persian. The festival is celebrated by all Muslims in Central Asia and is very similar to the Mongolian New Year celebrations. It is said that celebrating a wedding or the birth of a child on the day of the Nauriz festival brings good luck. The Kazakhs traditionally eat koje, a yoghurt-rice soup, and uuts, saddle of mutton, on Nauriz. On the first day, greet the sun and “open the eyes of the source” by moving rocks in a creek bed. The men plant trees. This day is also often used to resolve disputes. The task of the grandmother, who is usually dressed in a white headscarf, is to throw five delicacies of a sheep with sweets in the air and thus offer the best parts of the animal to the gods: the heart, the kidneys, the lungs, the liver and the Spleen. The rituals also include the “battle for the blue goat”, which actually consists of a simple brown leather bag made of goat skin. Two men, each seated on a horse, hold him and try to pull each other out of the saddle. The game is called Kyaz Khur, sometimes also called Buskaschi.