Mongolia has a lot of national holidays-some specific to Mongolia and some held over from the days of communism. Two holidays celebrated in the spring are Teacher’s day, the first Sunday of February, and Women’s Day, March 8th. Both of them are cause for concerts, dances, award ceremonies, eating, and drinking. Women’s day also brings the added bonus of getting a day off of work.
Teacher’s day was celebrated at the culture center with a concert put on by the more talented teachers (i.e. not me) from the school and kindergarten. Among the performance numbers were a orchestra piece
poetry reading
a dance by the school accountant
and a wild west dance number by some of the teachers and 11th grade students. It was fabulous
The action on the stage was so riveting that there were several attempts by preschoolers to get involved. The Khan bank teller’s twins were the ring leaders.
All the wonderful performers
The evening was topped off by Darkhuu and I both receiving awards from the school. I now have two medals to wear to school graduation!
Women’s day was a multi day celebration including a concert, a volleyball tournament, and a dinner/party. The concert started with a brief awards ceremony where Darkhuu won the “Wonderful Mongolian Woman Award” and I won the “Generous Woman Award” from the Woman’s league of Hanhongor.
After the awards, the men from town put on a concert for the ladies including vocal and instrumental numbers. The one oddity was me leading the second graders in a rousing edition of “Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?” in English. They were very cute and only forgot to turn around their puppets 50% of the time.
The next day the women’s league held a party for all the ladies in town at the culture center. Based on the group you were affiliated with (school teachers, school workers, government workers, herders; etc) you set up a table with food, candy, and enough alcohol to float a boat with. Our table even had an idee and a table cloth!
And how did everyone bring their goodies to the party? In their Trader Joe’s bags that we gave them for Tsagaan Sar of course!
The night was a mix of eating, dancing, games, and awards. The Women’s league gave a very nice award to a mother of 13 and much of her family came to see her honored. The family made a huge idee at their table
and her 12 surviving children gave a speech and sang a song to her.
She is the lovely little lady in the blue dell who could barely hold up her plaque, trophy, and medal!
The rest of the night consisted of lots of eating, drinking, and friendship. It is times like this that remind me of how lucky I am to work with such nice people.
