The Parade

May 2, 2011

 

Happy Unity Day Everyone! Actually, it was yesterday, but since the holiday fell on a Sunday, we get Monday off as well.  I have a newfound respect for two-day weekends seeing as I normally only get one day a week.

 

To celebrate the holiday I went to what was potentially the strangest parade of my life. For pretty much every state holiday, there is a concert in the center of town.  My village actually has an outdoor stage permanently constructed in the town square.  All the traffic from the "highway," which is our Main Street, is diverted through the neighborhoods as people flock to the square for the concert at 10AM… which really means 10:30 or 11AM. 

 

I joined the crowd and when I got there I noticed no one was actually standing in the square like they usually do.  They would walk all around the edge of the center, but it was like there was an equally charged magnet repelling everyone from that spot.  I was confused.  Then without any announcement, my host mother pulled me to the street.  Suddenly people were lining both sides of the street and there was a cluster of men walking down the road.  They wore regular street clothes and carried a banner as they walked straight-faced, not waving or acknowledging the crowed.  Meanwhile, the crowd didn't cheer or wave back.  We just stared at them.  They walked the equivalent of two city blocks and evaporated into the crowd.  Then the next group came.  They were stoic.  We were stoic.  Yet, everyone gave them their complete attention.  This repeated itself for about ten "floats" (aka- groups of people walking down the street) before the parade ended.  Then the concert began and people started mingling in the street again.

 

Like so many things in Kazakhstan, it was "an experience."