but you knew that already right? and not just because i wandered into a dress rehearsal a few weeks ago. i also wrote about victory day waaaaay back in ought-six.
so like i was saying, today it's victory day, the day we commemorate kazakhstan's victory over nazi germany. what do they do for victory day in taraz? the same thing they do for every freakin' holiday! (and this is my seventh), they have a big hullaballoo on the central square.
actually there has been a lot of lead-up to this particular holiday. for weeks they've been practicing every morning for today's big performance. which has made a few surreal scenes here in the center of town. a few days ago, i was running some errands and a guy dressed as a nazi SS officer rode past me on a bicycle. also, as victory day approached, i saw more and more old guys walking around town wearing a military uniform with soviet-era medals pinned to their chest. like these guys in the billboard:
or this guy who i saw in the parade crowd this morning:
it's not just the USSR's greatest generation either. earlier in the week our taxi driver sported medals. he was in afghanistan in the early 1980s.
but where was i? oh yes, the parade. the parade began with a vague review of the history of world war two. from the invading nazis:
to floats depicting the battles between germany and the red army:
followed by the victory of the soviet union:
then came mourners for the fallen soviet soldiers (at first i thought the women in black were holding melons. in fact, they were holding helmets with red stars on them, which, i must admit, is more somber than mellons):
then came some dancing (that i didn't get any good pictures of) and then the modern armed forces of kazakhstan marched by:
the modern armed forces thing went on forever. sick of parades yet? good. i think i captured it pretty well. actually, my favorite part was from earlier in the celebration. when the parade route was flanked by soldiers and men in white shirts holding up red flags. except that one of the flag holder couldn't find a plain white shirt, so he wore a white LA raiders shirt instead:
