The Spring Holiday Nauryz-Meiramy in the Kazakh Tradition

Abstract

The present article is the first attempt by the author to give a scholarly interpretation of the interesting yet under investigated phenomenon of Kazakh ‘Nauryz’. The ethno-cultural traditions of ‘Nauryz’, lost as a result of Islamization and Sovietization of Kazakhstan, have been revived over the last 30 years. The article reviews the basic socio-historical prerequisites of ‘Nauryz’ in the system of Kazakh traditional culture, taking into account the typological features of spring holiday (the idea of cyclic revival of life), as well as specific aspects of Central Asian nomadism. The author regards ‘Nauryz-meiramy’ as a complete calendar-ceremonial complex of high social and spiritual significance and conditionally differentiates three interconnected components of the traditional ‘Nauryz-meiramy’ (ritual, competitive, entertaining) and emphasizes their duplicative character. The article devotes special attention to an examination of the musical context of ‘Nauryz-mejramy’. The author argues for the existence of the currently lost song genre specific to Nauryz-meiramy (akin to carols) and based on the available data attempts to reconstruct its original model. KEYWORDS