Цаган Сар

On Sunday, the Kalmyks celebrated their New Year. Tsagan Sar (I’ve provided the Cyrillic in the title of this post), or White Month, marks the beginning of spring after a long, cold winter. Like other cultures, the Kalmyks have integrated some of the traditions from when they were nomads roaming the great Eurasian steppe into their contemporary, sedentary, national identity. And besides, who doesn’t like having a reason to party…

I was invited to Valeriy’s apartment for a traditional Kalmyk meal. Lunch is the meal-of-the-day, as we used to call it in the Holland household, and this was no exception. I’ve included a photo as visual evidence. The key ingredient in Kalmyk cuisine is meat. This is usually mutton, though other forms are fine substitutes. For dinner, we had meatballs with gravy over mashed potatoes, lamb shank, bullion (the real thing, no cubes here), and cole slaw. This was supplemented by vodka (Russki Standart, very premium, and also a stand-in for kumis, or fermented mares’ milk, which is drunk in the summer), dzamba, or Kalmyk butter tea, and bortsigi, which is the Kalmyk take on the doughnut. I rather enjoy dunking them in the butter tea.

After dinner, we went to Friendship Park, near Elista’s downtown, and watched a rotation of cultural performances that included a dance troupe and singers. A video of the most amusing of the acts is below. At the concert, Valeriy ran into a friend, Gennadiy, who is the head of the local power plant. He was hosting the President of the Russian Martial Arts Federation. See photo below of me schmoozing with local dignitaries. Valeriy is to my right, Gennadiy to my left, and the martial artist two to my left. I’ll leave it to you to make conclusions about how he rose to that position. Nonetheless, we were invited by eat more food. I obliged, of course, as Gennadiy had in his gastronomic arsenal berigi, the Kalmyk take on the dumpling.

The day was capped by another dance performance, this time at the National Theater. This was done by the national dance troupe, which has been highly decorated in competitions in the Russian Federation and has also toured Europe and the United States. They were quite good. I’ve tried to attach a clip, but the internet connection is excruciatingly slow. I'll give it another go later.

As for welcoming spring, there might be something to this whole Tsagan Sar thing. On Monday it was finally above freezing, and today it was around forty…