My favorite holiday in Kazakhstan

by Yevgeniya Khatskevich

There are many holidays in my country; among them are Easter, Trinity, New Year's Day, Christmas, Nauryz, the Feast of Unity of the Peoples of Kazakhstan, Victory Day, Day of the Capital, Constitution Day, Independence Day of Kazakhstan, International Women's Day, and Days of the Defenders of the Fatherland (on February 23 and May 7). These are formal holidays. Informal ones consist of Halloween, Valentine's Day, the Old New Year and others.

Each holiday has special meaning and reasons for celebrating. Actually, I like all holidays in my country because most of them are days off, which means that you don't have to go to work, and you can do whatever you want for fun. You can celebrate in traditional or non traditional ways. Holidays are rare times of the year when you can just enjoy life. They are times to stop and take a deep breath before work begins to drive you crazy again.

The holiday which I like more than the others is International Women's Day or the 8th of March. Of course, my first reason for loving this day is that I’m a woman. It's very pleasant to receive presents, flowers, and hear wonderful words addressed to you. In addition, you get a lot of attention from men. But hello, they do it because they have to do it, so it's no big deal.

Actually, the main reason why I like this day is my mom because it's another chance to tell her about my love and respect for her and to say thanks for having me and for raising me to become who I am today. When I was a child I made presents for my mother by myself. We did it in preschool and in kindergarten. We drew cards and made albums; we learned short poetry and read it for our mothers. All the words that we wrote in the cards or read were about love and words of thanks. It was a very beautiful time. I haven't made presents since I was a child. Instead, I buy them. But the point of my presents is still like it was in childhood: to say “I love you, mom, and thank you."

We all grow up, and our lives become very busy with all our very important to-do lists; we forget to say very important words to very important people in our lives. I think this is the point of many holidays: just to stop, take a deep breath and remember the people in our lives. The 8th of March is one of these special days.