i've come to like religious holidays the best in kazakhstan. the big public spectacles of cultural/national days were interesting at first. but after a while they all start to seem the same. kazakhstan has two religious holidays that are also public holidays: christmas on january 7th (i.e. russian orthodox christmas) and kyrban ait on whenever it falls according to the hijri calendar (i.e. 'eid al-adha). each year, the government throws a one-holiday bone to each of the two largest religions in the country.
because a good slice of the population does not celebrate each of the two officially recognized holidays (the muslims on christmas and the christians on kurban ait), there really aren't any big public spectacles associated with them. the shops close and everything just gets quiet. the people with religious reasons to celebrate do so with their family at home, while the ones who don't just relax at their homes and watch TV.
today the city is nice and quiet, just like it was on january 7th. i'm hoping this isn't the calm before another storm.
