Spring Holidays: Easter and More

The Russian Orthodox Easter is today, over a month after our relatives celebrated theirs in America. While Easter in America is mostly associated with chocolate bunnies, Cadbury eggs, and all sorts of things marshmallowy and sickeningly sweet, Easter here, for the Russian population of Bishkek, is a time to bake buns, rolls, and kulichi - mildly sweet bread with white frosting on top. They also dye eggs, usually red, and present plates of treats to their friends. That's why today we received a plate of goodies brought over by my neighbor's son Vladik, who proclaimed "Hristos voskres!" - Christ is risen - as he handed it to me. When I simply said 'spasibo,' he asked me why I didn't answer properly. What's the correct response? I asked, and he said, "Vaistenu voskres." Satisfied that I knew the proper response, he then repeated his greeting so I could practice the right way!

Marina's kulich bread - delicious!

... and other treats.


As for ourselves, we dyed a few eggs and made a "bunny cake" - a custom in my mom's family. Step one: make a round white cake, in this case, from scratch.



Step two: cut it in half and place the sides together. Cut a small notch to differentiate the head.

 Step three: cover the bunny in frosting and add cardboard ears and colorful m&m eyes and a nose. Our cake was a bit heavy and didn't stay together for very long, so alas, we had to eat him immediately. (As in, right after I took this picture.)

As for the egg-dying, I decided to use natural dye this year. We made some nice red dye by boiling beets. The only eggs I could find were brown, so the color didn't turn out particularly vibrant. When I left the eggs to soak overnight, though, they turned out ok. We put rubber-bands on a few eggs to give them a design.

A few weeks before, Marina and another neighbor Olga had a baking party so I could see how they prepare their Easter treats. We spent the whole day making bulochki and ruleti, filled with poppyseeds, tvorak, raisins, jam, walnuts, apples, and anything else we could come up with. The kitchen was filled with delicious scents as we cooed over our creations like mothers over their children.

Olga, the master at work.

The dough had to rise for about two hours, which meant it was the perfect time to have some salads and refreshments.

Then we prepared our fillings: raisins, tvorak, crushed walnuts with sugar, poppyseeds ...

 After the dough was ready, we tucked fillings into dozens of little rolls.

Then we made roulette, covering the dough with nuts, jam, etc. before rolling it up.

Olga and Marina pose with our delicious bulochki.

And they tasted even better than they looked! Meanwhile, while the women were cooking, Josh, Marina's husband Pasha, and the boys went out to their dacha in Pakrovka to cook shashlik and see the rabbits they raise. They were huge!

Pasha cooks duck shashlik.

May has several other holidays as well - May 1st is Din Trud, or Day of Labour. May 5 is Constitution Day for Kyrgyzstan, and May 9 is Victory Day. Both Misha and Sebby had concerts honoring the 1st of May.

Taking Misha to school on the day of his concert

Misha playing a type of Musical Chairs, but with kalpaks! The wall behind says "Mai, Mir, Trud" - May, Peace, Work.

Sebby's balloon dance

Even earlier, back on March 21st, was the Kyrgyz holiday Nooruz. Referred to sometimes as the Kyrgyz New Year, this holiday has its roots in Persia and corresponds with the first day of Spring. Families usually come together and prepare feasts of lamb and borsok, the national fried bread. Мisha's class also celebrated this day in school.

Waving to mom

The second grade performed a traditional dance

An invited guest performed songs on the komuz, the national three-stringed instrument. In this video, she is singing a well-known Kyrgyz song while playing:

She also played on the ooz komuz, or mouth harp, and performed national dances. At the end, she treated the children and the audience to fresh borsok.

The London School, where Josh and I teach and study, also had a brief celebration in honor of Nooruz. After some greetings and well wishes in Kyrgyz, everyone got to taste borsok and plov. The plov was cooked over a fire outdoors in a big kazan, and it was delicious.