Celebrating International Women's Day in Kazakhstan

Today Kazakhstan celebrates International Women’s Day.  I had not heard of this as a celebration before we came out here but it is a huge institution here with the day a designated public holiday.  The day is a combination of mother’s day and Valentine’s day but it celebrates women of all ages.

Women’s day has been celebrated since 1909 when the idea had it’s genesis in the US and it became an International day the following year after the proposal was tabled at an International Conference of Working Women.  Russia celebrated the day since 1913 and it became a popular holiday in the Soviet Union.  Today  it is an bank holiday in many countries. While it was originally a vehicle to highlight the specific problems faced by women it has morphed into a day of celebration.

The day is now an opportunity for men to show appreciation to all the women in their lives.  Because 8 March is a day off work my children’s school celebrated on 7 March.  They had various events for the day including a very sweet concert and dance display with the smallest Nursery and Reception children.  The children brought gifts in for their female teachers, these range from small tokens to quite elaborate gifts.  My husband and I had spent some time hunting out suitable presents for our children’s teachers and for his assistants.   After school the staff had a small celebration where the men put on an entertainment for the women.  It was rather amusing to watch the video – something along the lines of a Perfect Day 97 it must have taken quite some work as all the men in the school were involved, even my Husband who rarely sings.  In the evening we went to a Women’s day party at a friend’s house. 

Flowers received by one teacher at our children's school

Across the city a lot of work is put into Women’s day.  Street decorations and special flower lights are put up in the weeks leading up to the day itself and pop up stalls appear selling flowers or providing gift wrapping services and one of the big malls, the Khan Shatyr, arranged a ‘Super Mother’ contest in the main hall.

It is probably the busiest day of the year for florists shops and you see boxes and boxes of flowers being delivered from all over the world.  My local shop seeps to have a preference for flowers from Ecuador.

Special flower lights adorn the city.
It was so cold I could not get my fingers to focus the camera!

Special displays are placed around the city.

Because flowers have to be imported they are very expensive and single flowers prove a very popular gift.  One florists I walked past was selling some beautiful basket arrangements – when I looked at the price tag they were retailing for Tg35,000 or about $220.  Plants are also expensive to buy, usually costing double the price of a similar plant in Europe but at least they last longer than flowers and so are quite popular as gifts.  I did laugh when I overheard one man, he had obviously decided that flowers were a mugs game and wanted to buy a plant.  He was not quite sure he had made the right decision, however, and was asking everybody in the shop if they thought the plant was pretty and wondering whether ‘she’ would like it.  I desperately wanted to tell him that ‘she’ would be very lucky to get the plant because so much thought had gone into it but my Russian is not up to that.  I just told him it was beautiful.

Boxes of flowers flown in from Ecuador.  There were 5 times as many round the corner.

The authorities also celebrate Women’s day.  Awards and medals are given to mothers of large families and special concerts are staged across the city.  Elderly residents are often especially celebrated.  One story that particularly stuck with me was that of a lady called Nurzhamilya Kurdybaeva who celebrated her 100^th birthday on 8 March.

Click on the picture for more posts on life in Kazakhstan.