Kazakh Cultural Day kicks off in Ulaanbaatar
Kazakh culture and traditions were promoted in Ulaanbaatar on March 20 in commemoration of Kazakh New Year's celebration of Nauryz.
Naurys is a very important holiday for Persian and Turkic peoples and is celebrated over several days from March 21, the day of the spring equinox. The nonreligious celebration symbolizes fertility, friendship and love, and is similar to Mongolia's Tsagaan Sar, which involves the key tradition of visiting family members and relatives.
A national Kazakh ger was built outside of the Mongolian Youth Federation for the Kazakh Cultural Day. People who joined the event sampled nauryz-koje, a traditional festival soup eaten for prosperity in the upcoming year. Nauryz-koje is made with meat, water, flour, butter, millet, salt and milk, which symbolize growth, good fortune, happiness, wealth, health, wisdom and the heaven. Kazakh culture, traditions, history and other interesting information was shared by organizers from the Youth Association of Bayan-Ulgii Province in Ulaanbaatar and the Mongolian Youth Federation.
Some students studying Kazakh cultures and Kazakh people living in Mongolia introduced Kazakh folk songs, dombra instrument, and eagle hunting and training.
The Head of the Youth Association of Bayan-Ulgii Province located in Ulaanbaatar, B.Yerbulan, gave a speech about Nauryz on March 20.
“Nauryz is an ancient celebration marked on the day of the spring equinox. The celebration is deeply connected with nature and Kazakhs greet their relatives to pay respect to their elders and express adoration for children. We organized today’s event to promote this beautiful culture,” he said.
Former MP A.Bakei, General Secretary of the Mongolian Youth Federation P.Ankhjargal, MP and Head of the Khentii Province Youth Association N.Uchral, and MP G.Temuulen attended the event on Monday.
The Kazakhs are the second largest ethnic group in Mongolia after the Khalkhs, with 201,526 people comprising nearly seven percent of the Mongolian population. Most of them live in Bayan-Ulgii Province, where they make up over 90 percent of the inhabitants. Today, many Kazakhs in Mongolia maintain traditional semi-nomadic herding lifestyle and live in Kazakh-style gers that are larger and taller than a traditional Mongolian ger.