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Terisakkan Spring Festival of Horse Breeders: Ritual Food

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Manage No	PI00001880
Country	Kazakhstan
Year	2014-05-06
ICH Domain	Social practices, rituals, festive events, Knowledge and practices about nature and the universe

Description	From the early morning, on round tables or just on the ground near tethered horses, the families serve a ritual food for regaling villagers and visitors. Presenting the images of ancestors, famous horse breeders, is a new tradition.
Photographer	Sergey Bolotin (Mr)
Place	Terisakkan, Ulytau Distrikt, Karaganda Province	File Size	7.61 MB
Definition	4256 x 2832	File Format	jpg
Copyright	Sergey Bolotin; Kazakhstan ICH Committee

LIST

EE00002031 Traditional spring festive rites of the Kazakh horse breeders
Kazakh spring horse-breeding rites mark the end of the old and the beginning of the new yearly horse-breeding cycle. Rooted in the traditional knowledge of nature and in the millennia-aged close relations between man and horse, these rites involve skills inherited from the nomadic ancestors and adapted to the present day reality. The festive rites compiles of the triade: (1) .‘Biye baylau’; (2) ‘Ayghyr kosu’; and (3) ‘Kymyz muryndyk’. ‘Kymyz muryndyk’ (metaphorically, ‘initiation of koumiss’) is the 'first koumiss sharing' rite, opening a season of its making and drinking. The preparations go all year round (cutting wool and horse hair, getting good stallions for herds, weaving ropes and foal slips, repairing ware, cutting juniper for smoking vessels, cooking ritual food). Blessed by the elders, the ‘first milking’ day comes in early May, when mares have foaled and grass grown. In total the rites take about 3 weeks until the koumiss sharing ceremonies, taking place in every house of the village, are over.

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