Nauryz 2016

The last three day all Kazakh people are celebration Nauryz (Kazakh new year). Last year I wrote a post about it here. We were going to Thailand then. This year we are going to Sri Lanka. I guess we are making it a tradition! :)

On Monday we got together with some friends and went to aul (ethnic village that was set up specifically for the celebration of Nauryz just down the road from Nazarbayev University). It was a sunny day, but was only 32F. The main celebration was happening the next day but we had packing to do for our trip, so we opted for the earlier time.

We met our friends and went into the village. We were surprised with all of the security around, we had to go through a check point and a body search. There were a lot of police around the perimeter of the village and inside. We didn't think much of it. We looked around the village. There were vendors selling different crafts and art. There were yurts set up as little dining places. There was a big outdoor stage with a lot of different performers. There was a wrestling rink, and also places where kids could play a tug-of-war games. There were also traditional Kazakh swings.

Lots of people dressed in the national costumes.

More costumes

Some of our crew

Lina and Lexa

Kazakh wrestling match

Weight lifting competition

Kazakh swings

Our kids really wanted to get on one of those, so we stood around waiting for our turn. Apparently there is no line, the kids just stay around the swing set and as soon as the swing stops, they rush to it trying to be the first one to jump on, cutting each other off and even wrestling. Anyway, our kids were way too polite to do that, so finally we, the parents just had to take a matter into our own hands.

Some of our kids finally managed to get on the swing.

While on the swings, Taraz (the daughter of one of our friends) was up in the air and yelled that she thinks that someone famous is coming. When she was up again the next time, she frantically screamed: “It's the President!”. 

Here is Taraz up in the air when she spoted the President!

We looked around and saw a huge crowd moving just 20 feet from us. It turns out

Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of the country was visiting the village! The crowd was so big, so we couldn't see him but I managed to snap a photo of him by lifting up my camera as high as I could.

Can you spot the President? He is the white haired guy you can see right off the left shoulder of the girl dressed on the left who is dressed in white.

These girls really had a good view!

He went into the golden yurt, so we decided to stick around to see him when he will be leaving. We waited, and waited, and waited. The kids were getting restless. I just knew that as soon as we left our spot, he would come out. So we waited, and waited, and waited again. Finally we decided to go eat some food, and as soon as we left, he came out from the yurt. We missed him once again. After that the village emptied until only half as many people were there. I was wondering if the people came there just to see the president, or if half of the people in the village were the security agents, because we did spot quite a few of them running around in normal clothes but with ear pieces in their ears.

The President went into that second yurt from the right. 

Loaded on cotton candy

Overall we had a good time, but now we are ready to go to a sunny and warm Sri Lanka for a week to thaw! We love Kazakhstan but the winter is a bit too long for my liking!

Happy bunch!