Posted
June 23, 2013
Did
you ever wonder what “tartar” means in tartar sauce? Or
“tartare,” in steak tartare?
Well,
the Tatars are a group of people who live in Eastern Europe and
Northern Asia. During the time of the USSR, most Tatars lived in the
Soviet Union, but when that nation broke up, many Tatars found
themselves living in various different countries: most in the Russian
Federation, but many in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Tartar
(with an extra R) was another name for this group of people.
One
of the important festivals for the Tatars is Sabantuy, a celebration
of the fact that plowing is over and crops are growing. The festival
is marked by music, dancing, exhibitions, and games of skill or
speed, balance or strength.
There
are lots of races: horse racing, rack-in-a-sack,
egg-in-spoon-in-mouth races, and more.
Here's
a great game: two men sit perched on a log that is several feet above
the ground; they hit each other in the head with bags of straw until
one of them falls off. (Don't try this at home, kids!)
Other
contests include pillar climbing, finding a coin in sour milk, and my
personal favorite—pot smashing!
There
is a special kind of Tatar wrestling that is central to the festival.
Competitors use towels and try to knock each other to the ground.
There is a prize for the ultimate winner of all the wrestling matches
during the festival: in a village the prize might be a ram, and in a
city, it might be a car. |
| This is a long-hair contest held during the festival. |
Also
on this date:
Plan
ahead:
Check
out my Pinterest pages on June
holidays, historical
anniversaries in June,
and June
birthdays.
And
here are my Pinterest pages on July
holidays, historical
anniversaries in July,
and July
birthdays.
