Сабантуй — Sabantuy

Tatarstan is a multicultural republic. There sre many various festivals and holidays. Some of them are specific to this or that nation.

I would like to tell you about a very popular, amusing and loved by everybody Tatar national holiday Sabantuy.

Sabantuy is perhaps the most popular festival. It is a celebration of the plough .Sabantuy doesn’t have a set date. it takes place at the beginning of summer, after the first haymaking. Initially the festivals are arranged in villages, followed by sabantuy in rural districts, and the final ones taking place in major cities.

Our grandparents always tell us about histiry of this festival. Earlier people believed that owing to this festival they would have a good harvest.

I have very happy memories of Sabantuy. Most of all I like the competitions, such as horse racing, race-in-sack, pillar-climbing, egg-in-spoon-in-mouth-racing, sacks-battle on the crossbar, pots crashing, finding a coin in a beverage made from sour milk. You can choose any competition you like.

The Tatar wrestling is the main competition of Sabantuy. Wrestlers use towels and the arm to knock down the opponent. In our village all boys take part at this competition to find out their power.

The winner becomes the hero of Sabantuy. The prizes for him is very expensive, like a TV-set or a car. But the main present is a ram.

Sabantuy takes place on the maydan, which would usually be located at the edge of a forest.

Sabantuyis a symbol of Tatarstan. Russian presidents visiting the republic like to take part in Sabantuy held in Kazan. During his visit to Kazan in the mid-1990s Boris Yeltsin became the center of attention at Sabantuy taking part in a traditional competition, where the participants while being blindfolded tryed to crash a clay pot.

The next president Vladimir Putin took part in a humorous competition where he tried to dip his face into a bowl full of sour milk in order to fish out a coin without using his hands.