Navruz

We have had two Tajik holidays since we have been here.  The first was Women's Day, and the second was Navruz.  Women's Day was nice.  It was similar to Mothers Day except it was for all girls and women.  The ladies had the day off and gave each other flowers and gifts.  I made some chocolate chip cookies for my friend, Madina and her family.

   Navruz is similar to a New Year for the Tajiks.  Madina and her two older sisters invited me to go to a concert that had traditional dancing and singing.  We left at 7:30 AM and the streets were already packed and lined with people selling food, flowers, traditional clothes and playing music.  The concert was at a huge stadium that used to be a horse track.  When we got there, hundreds of people were already inside the stadium.  One interesting thing that happened was that when the stadium started to get full, the police separated the boys and girls and made sure the girls went in first.  A few bad boys tried to push in but the police had a big German Shepherd dog that would bark and scare them to death if they tried.
   Once we were inside, the president gave a speech.  They had a huge TV screen that you could see him on.  He had several pages and it got to be a little tedious listening to a LONG speech in a different language.  Finally, the dancing started.  It was very complex and for about three to four hours there was just dance after dance and song after song.  There were times when they had hundreds of dancers on stage at one time.  All around the stage there were people with umbrellas who would open and close and turn and twist them at certain times.  There was also acrobats, musicians and people who rolled around in large wheels.
   I had a great time! It was so interesting to see a little more of the Tajiks traditions and culture.

   Taylor

Madina and her sisters

This was the stage.  There are letters on the buildings behind it that spell Navruz.

One of the dances.

  

Here is one of the times that there were hundreds of people all dancing at the same time.

Another Dance.  You can see the people with umbrellas in the back.