Nar Bayraminiz Mubarek! Happy Pomegranate Holiday!
Goychay is known for its long history of growing the “worlds best” pomegranates, certainly the best in Azerbaijan. So every year, for the last three years, Goycay has had a pomegranate festival. This year with a new local government the festival was a bit different. There was no biggest pomegranate contest or fastest pomegranate eating/juicing contests which disappointed me a little. However, there was plenty of fun to be had. We had a clown, tight rope walker, wrestlers, karate kids breaking boards, and a school orchestra. There were a few displays for the local pomegranate juicing companies on big truck flatbeds. They had tons of juice and pomegranate products but would not sell us anything. Luckily, we are American so we could convince them to give us some free juice. There was also a parade with horses and a huuuuuggggge Azeri flag carried by over 30 Azeri boys. The local government walked in the parade and the police let me and my friend, Tor, walk up to the front to get a good view. After that there were some speeches and then as the festival was ending it began to rain.
I had quite an eclectic group come to enjoy the holiday. There was a good amount of PCV’s that came from the other regions. As well as 3 PCV’s that just completed their service in Kazakhstan and 1 who just completed her service in Uzbekistan. There were 3 “couch surfers” visiting from Europe that joined our group as well. All in all I think we had about 15 people. We all wondered the festivities taking breaks from the crowd at my house when needed. It was a really good time. Below you will enjoy lots of pictures that will speak more for the festival than I can.
Still Kickin’
Kat Zig
Disclaimer: “The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.”
I had quite an eclectic group come to enjoy the holiday. There was a good amount of PCV’s that came from the other regions. As well as 3 PCV’s that just completed their service in Kazakhstan and 1 who just completed her service in Uzbekistan. There were 3 “couch surfers” visiting from Europe that joined our group as well. All in all I think we had about 15 people. We all wondered the festivities taking breaks from the crowd at my house when needed. It was a really good time. Below you will enjoy lots of pictures that will speak more for the festival than I can.
Still Kickin’
Kat Zig
Disclaimer: “The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.”
(Anonymous)
SO Much Fun