Astana Day Schedule
Finally tracked down the Schedule of Events for Astana Day in English. My biggest disappointment is that it looks like they have replaced the Kazakh horse sports with a show jumping competition. Seriously, I wait all year to go to the Hippodrome and see the kokpar, the races and of course the kyz kui and dzigitovka.
Kyz kui (Catch the girl) is a traditional game where a man tries to catch a woman on horseback. If he catches her, he gets to kiss her. The fun part is that she has a riding crop to beat him off with! And sometimes they do it in reverse where the woman chases the man! Dzigitovka (Manly sport?) consists of show-riding like riding standing up on the saddle or climbing on and off the horse and full gallop. It’s really impressive and derives from hunting and war skills that all nomads had to have to survive in the olden days. The name indicates that it was also a chance for young men to show off and hopefully impress a girl or two. However, it does look like the parks will be full of interesting traditional displays so I’m looking forward to walking around the Festival of Nomad Civilization.
Normally Astana Day (which coincides with the president’s birthday) lasts for a whole week. I assume the financial crisis has forced the government to cut its budget a bit. Still it should be fun.
So what are you looking forward to on the upcoming holiday? Or do you plan to stay home and sleep late?
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One of the most impressive things involving horses I saw in Astana was during the Astana 10 year celebrations last year. One of a series of converts/events was held in the “long time coming” new sports stadium on the road towards the airport. They set the rider AND HORSE on fire, galloping the full length of the stadium, obviously protecting horse and rider with protective padding/chemicals, an impressive sight (and no harm to either). No picture unfortunately, I attempted to take one or two but my photography skills don’t extend to taking moving objects, especially when they’re ablaze.
Comment by Daninkaz — 1 August 2009 @ 2:01 am
I missed that last year. Went to the hippodrome and saw all the horse sports but missed the fire!
This year it turns out they did it in the central park, which was much better because the horses are right there! No distance between you and the action. Of course, my camera battery died right before we got there!
Comment by KZBlog — 4 August 2009 @ 9:48 am