Bashkirs of Kazakhstan Gathered in Capital to Celebrate the Ancient Holiday ‘Yiyin’
The solemn opening of the holiday 'Yiyin', organized by Bashkir ethnocultural association 'Akbuzat' with the support of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan in Nur-Sultan was held in the capital’s park ‘Zhetisu’.
"Yiyin" is an ancient holiday of Bashkir people, which takes a special place in the traditional ritual culture. It is celebrated on the summer solstice day. Since ancient times holiday competitions were spent among young people, and the winner was included into number of respected members of a community.
An intensive concert programme has been prepared for the holiday, with the participation of the Uraltau Dance Ensemble, the vocal ensemble and the winners of international and national competitions.
Bashkir folk songs were sung and national dances were performed as well.
Traditional competitions were held nearby: egg-laden running, team skiing, sacking on a log, running with yoke and buckets of water, and other national games.
Zakir Bikmukhametov, Chairman of the youth wing of Akbuzat Bashkir Ethno-cultural Association, said that yiyin was originally held as a meeting of Bashkir tribes.
"The purpose of our event was to get acquainted with the culture and traditions of the Bashkir ethnos. As part of the celebration, people can enjoy the concert programme of the Uchalinsk Philharmonic of the Republic of Bashkortostan, take part in sports competitions and participate in master classes," Chairman of the youth wing said.
The event was also attended by guests from Kazakhstan, Bashkortostan and Russia.
Timur Ayupov came from Barnaul to participate in the round table and celebrate "Yiyin" at the invitation of the Bashkir ethnocultural center "Akbuzat".
"I'm an associate professor of Altai State Medical University, PhD in History. Yesterday during the round table I made an extensive report on "Problems of self-identification and self-organization of the Bashkirs of Kazakhstan", where I used statistical data, made a historical review of how Bashkirs appeared on the territory of Kazakhstan and the Central Asian region, what were the features of the formation of the Bashkir ethnos. My interest is not idle, but scientific, because the theme of my research is "Bashkirs of Central Asia".
Of all five Central Asian republics, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have separate Bashkir ethno-cultural associations. Mostly in all former Soviet republics joint Tatar-Bashkir ethno-cultural associations are created. It has both advantages and disadvantages. It is remarkable that two closely related people have always lived together and maintained traditions. But there are also negative sides to it, since the Bashkirs are inferior in number to the Tatars, in such joint ethno-cultural associations special emphasis is always put on the Tatars, on the development of Tatar culture. And for us, it is very pleasant that Bashkir ethno-cultural association has been actively working in the capital of Kazakhstan for two years already. Before that in 1991, the only Bashkir ethno-cultural association was established in Aktau and it is remarkable that in the capital of the republic there is a separate Bashkir association. We hope that soon it will receive the republican status.
The holiday "Yiyin" is an original holiday of Bashkir people. In joint associations, Sabantui is positioned as a Tatar-Bashkir holiday. The highlight of "Yiyin" is that other people do not have such festivals. It can be said that "Yuyin" may become a visiting card of the ethno-cultural association Akbuzat.
At the round a wish that "Yyiyn" became not only a good tradition and was held annually on the Kazakh land, but in order to expand the geography, it could be transferred to other regions of Kazakhstan was expressed as well.
Representatives of Almaty, Karaganda, the head of Bashkir folklore ensemble from Kostanay region also attended the holiday. For them it is also a positive experience as they not only receive positive emotions and impressions, but also can borrow useful for the public activity.
"During several years we directly communicate with the head of the Bashkir ethnocultural association Ural Aznabayev, he shared with us information for my scientific activity. Since I run the Bashkir Club in Barnaul in parallel, we have a lot in common for sharing experience and knowledge. In perspective we see other points of cooperation, at the round table the idea to collect information about representatives of Bashkir people, who made a significant contribution to the development of Kazakhstan, was sounded. There are a lot of them, because in the course of our scientific researches we have found about 50 worthy sons and daughters of Bashkir people, who were born and lived on the territory of Kazakhstan. Among them there are a lot of scientists, engineers, doctors and military men. I believe that such work in the form of an encyclopedia or a collection of famous Bashkirs of the Kazakh land will certainly adorn the book world of Kazakhstan," Timur Ayupov said.
Dana TUGAMBEKOVA
Photo by Bashkir Ethnocultural Center 'Akbuzat'
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