A Merry Little Bishmas
Christmas in Kyrgyzstan is more Christmassy than I thought...
For the past few weeks, the temperature in Bishkek has been steadily getting lower, the standard herald of the end of autumn and the beginnings of winter. Then, all of a sudden, it plummeted by thirty to forty degrees Celsius within the week. At its most extreme we were hitting minus twenty two, and the snowfall began in earnest.
The week of Christmas and New Year, however, we jumped back up above zero, the cold snap almost feeling like a warning shot across the bow. While the evenings are still chilly, and my hopes of a white Christmas were slightly dashed into a melted, slushy grey Christmas, it has been one of the better ones in my time abroad, certainly my best Christmas away from home.
In Kyrgyzstan, Christmas isn’t celebrated on the 25th December. Instead, Christmas and New Years Eve are folded together into one celebration. Presents are given and the big dinner eaten on the 31st, and the Christmas Tree is rather the New Years Tree. There is a different celebration on the 7th January, the Orthodox Christmas, which is also celebrated by the Russian Orthodox Christians here.
Despite all these different celebrations, 2023 is the first year where there has been a large fanfare about it. In Ala Too Square, for the first time, a gargantuan Christmas Tree has been erected.
When I saw it being put up from the bus, cloaked in winter fog and exhaust fumes, I didn’t know it would look anything like this. Of course, none of the lights were on: it was the middle of the day, but still, winter smog takes the magic out of the season a little bit. Once finished and lit up, the tree was surrounded by yet more lights. Some were arranged into images of horses, berkut eagles, and the legendary Manas, others were in the shape of the carriages that bore Cinderella to the ball in multiple colours. Across the road, Coca Cola leaped in with a little food market, that sold kebabs and hot dogs, and bottles of classic coke for a paltry seventy som, or about sixty pence in the UK. The tree itself had a myriad of mascots around it: Pokémon, Disney and Pixar characters, and Christmas icons.
The more cynical of the citizenry might think that all these pretty lights have been a government manufactured distraction. The universally unpopular decision to change the Kyrgyzstan flag has people a fair bit disgruntled, and in a country where they have a habit of successfully replacing the government, the last thing the President wants Bishkek to be is disgruntled.
Just keep the flag the bloody same, guys. It’s a good flag.
Distraction or not, most of Bishkek has been all-in on Christmas, right from the beginning of December. Michael Bublé and George Michael seem to have caught the same plane to Central Asia as The Arctic Monkeys, blaring from as many café speakers as possible. Small markets popped up in the city, including a German one that sold sausages, cheese and mulled wine, as well as handmade notebooks that I really had to try incredibly hard not to throw all my money at.
In terms of gifts, the first present I bought myself was not a komuz, but fur-lined boots that would protect me from slipping in the slush. In terms of work, I was once again pressed into service as Santa, not to give any gifts to children, but to do an ad for instagram.
Yo ho ho indeed.
What made this year different from previous Christmases away? First of all, the company. At Christmas, the company is vital. This year has been a far cry from the loneliness of the season in Japan, or the cynical nature of the Chinese version. When in Europe, I’ve had the privilege of being able to go home and see my family. Not so when I’m on another continent. For the first Christmas in Asia, home didn’t seem so far away. I exchanged gifts with friends and people I care for, and despite Christmas Day itself being uncharacteristically busy, it never made me fatigued or needing a break to collect my mind. Christmas dinner consisted of Georgian food:
… and a relaxing evening with friends. Is it the same as spending the day with the family and the dog? No … but it was a great Christmas nevertheless.
While the temperature outside remains north of zero, I still have the lingering words of Sean Bean at the back of my mind.
Winter is coming…
Bring it on.