Kurban Bairam

Yesterday we joined our friends at their Kurban Bairam celebration. (For those who don't know, we share a house with a Crimean Tatar family.) It's called something else in the rest of the world, I think, but that's what it is here: the holiday to remember Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son. It lasts for several days. First our neighbours had lots of guests, then their father spent a day out making sacrifices, then yesterday there was a big celebration at the park. Asya wore her very best dress, as is proper for that day.

When we got there, we saw two boys we know from church. They do martial arts and were asked to help with that part of the event, but they weren't too sure about it all. I think they were relieved to see that we were there, too.

There were trampolines for the children to jump on, bikes to ride, games to play, cotton candy....

I was trying to get a photo of all three. B had to tell 
me something urgent, L couldn't stop jumping, 
and N flopped over in the background. But they're all there.

The one in the darker dress is our girls' friend.

At some point, Bogdan knocked out a loose tooth, and Will took him off to get cleaned up and find him some ice cream, since his mouth was bleeding a lot. We had been sitting on the edge watching everything. A drunk man walking by flopped on the bench where I was and almost fell on me. Our neighbour and her friends saw, and didn't like that, so they pulled me back into the women's side and started feeding me.  I stayed with them for the rest of the time and thoroughly enjoyed it all.

Then, this was the funny part: about the time we were leaving they announced the winner of the wrestling. It was one of the boys from our church. They called him up to the front and told him to wait while they get the ram. They brought a ram out from somewhere, put it on his shoulder, and had him walk around with it, alive and kicking! The ram was his prize. He was as surprised as we were. Then he started asking, "Now what? Do I call a taxi?" He and Jaan had come across town on their bikes. We left at about that point, but I was imagining him and Jaan trying to carry it between them, or one of them riding two bikes, or something. Jaan says that the organizers of the event ended up keeping it for him, and telling him that he could come get the meat from it later.

Just a sweet photo from this morning to finish up with:

She loves her "AsYA."