Holiday Month!

Call it March Madness if you will, but I'm writing another blog post!
There's been a lot going on here lately and I'll try and update:

March 8th was International Women's Day-a big holiday here in Azerbaijan. Mathias and I happened to be in Baku (on business) and everywhere people were selling flowers and candy. I got many a text messege of congratulations. Todd and Mathias seemed to take much pleasure in congratulating "An International Woman" on my day. Apparently this is a big holiday everywhere in the world except in the U.S. When people asked me why we didn't really celebrate it I blurted out "Because in America, every day is womens day!" Some people thought it was really funny, some just looked disturbed.

Mathias and I also have the rest of the month off from work due to the Referendum and Novruz.

The Referendum is taking place on Wednesday and is a country-wide vote on changes in the constitution ranging from making taking pictures of people without their permission illegal to effectively removing the Presidential term limit. I tried to find a good article link to give more information without giving my own political opinion but came up short. It might be fun to google though.

Novruz is a huge holiday here in Azerbaijan. All week I explained to my conversation club students that this is my first Novruz and therefore I need them to write as much as they can in English about it so I will know what is going on. This is what I learned:

• Novruz is a National Holiday of Azerbaijan
• The four Tuesdays leading up to Novruz represent the four elements: Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. At dusk each of these Tuesdays, people light bonfires and jump over them.
• On Novruz itself (the 20th and 21st) People will again light big bonfires and jump over them 7 times. There is also something about burning things for luck but that part wasn't very clear.
• Boys get to throw their hats into peoples yards, knock, and then run away and hide. Then the hats are filled with sweets like Baclava. I asked what the girls do and was told "The girls get to listen!"
• There is a plate of wheatgrass with a ribbon around it. At least that's what every kid draws when asked to draw a picture about Novruz.
• There is a Novruz man who is skinny, bald and has a beard. There is also a "Spring Girl".
• "Mom cooks great food."
• Everyone "causes" eggs. This is a translational probelm. Every child wrote this and it is how the dictionary translates what they are trying to say. But through acting and picture drawing I have discovered that what really happens is everyone decorates eggs. phew!

So that's what's in store for us in the coming weeks! I let you know if any fun stories come of it!!

~Emma