Sabantuy in 2023: the history and traditions of the Tatar holiday

What date is Sabantuy celebrated in 2023

The dates of the holiday are set individually every year, usually Sabantuy falls on the first summer month. In 2023, it will be held in different cities of Tatarstan on different dates – we will find out the exact days about a month before the event.

The history of the holiday: who the plow marries

It is believed that Sabantuy appeared almost a thousand years ago. Most often it is called the Tatar holiday, and this is true, but its traditions are also not alien to the Bashkirs, Chuvashs, Udmurts and other peoples.

Sabantuy is a word of Turkic origin. It consists of two parts: “saban”, which means “plough”, and “tui” – that is, “wedding”, “celebration” or in general “holiday” in a broad sense. It turns out such a “triumph of the plow” or the day of farmers. In pagan times, its main purpose was to appease the spirits so that in the fall they would send down a good harvest. The ceremony should have been held at the end of April, before the start of sowing. The local elders monitored the correctness of the rituals and sacrifices.

After the adoption of Islam by the Tatars, the religious component of the holiday gradually disappeared, and centuries later, Sabantuy finally became just a fun folk festival. At the same time, the dates have also shifted – now they mark not the beginning, but the end of the sowing season, when all spring work has been completed, and there is a respite before harvesting.

Where exactly the holiday originated, scientists have not fully figured out. Some believe that his homeland is the Volga Bulgaria (a state in the Middle Volga region in the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries), others are sure that the tradition came from the Mongols.

From Washington to Ufa: who celebrates Sabantuy and where today

The merry Sabantuy has successfully survived to this day, lost a bit of tradition, but significantly expanded its geography. Tatar communities celebrate it all over the world: in Washington, Montreal, Prague, Leipzig, Paris, Istanbul and Moscow, of course. Since 2001, the Federal Sabantuy has been held in Our Country, and every year a new city is chosen to host the festival. But the most large-scale and cheerful celebrations are still in the “homeland”, in Kazan – there Sabantuy is a public holiday.

The holiday is seasonal, marks the end of the sowing campaign, so there is no clear date for it. It is also important that fun does not fall on the first days of the holy month of Ramadan. Therefore, as a rule, festivities are organized in June – early July. At the same time, they are held in Tatarstan in several stages: first in villages and villages, then in regional centers, and Sabantuy ends with a large-scale holiday in the capital of the region.

Traditions of Sabantuy, or how to win a lamb

Today Sabantuy in a more or less classical form has been preserved mainly in the villages. It begins with the collection of gifts. On the eve of the holiday, young guys and teenage boys ride horses around the yards. They are not met empty-handed everywhere: the hosts give guests embroidered towels, pastries, home-made souvenirs and dishes. Whoever receives the most “offerings” is well done, but he does not get anything from what he has collected. All gifts are sent to the “common cauldron”, which the next day will become the prize fund at the festivities in honor of the holiday on the Maidan – the central square.

You can win all this goodness in various contests and competitions for strength and dexterity. For example, in the national kuresh wrestling, when you need to throw the opponent on his back with the help of a towel thrown over his belt or a wide sash. The winner is declared the best batyr and presented with the main prizes – traditional (a live ram, which is put on the shoulders of a hero) and useful (it can be a rather expensive thing, even a car). By the way, kuresh has long outgrown the level of just a festive entertainment, today it is quite a real sport, world championships are held in it.

Those who do not shine with physical strength also have a place to show themselves. Many comic competitions take place on Sabantuy – running with yokes, sack fights on a log. Or here’s a popular pastime – you need to smash an earthenware pot standing on the ground with a stick the first time blindfolded. Horse races are also obligatory, but this is only for real dzhigits.

The festivities stretch for almost the whole day and are accompanied by fairs with refreshments, dances are held at them, and visiting stars are invited.

Five facts about Sabantuy

• The holiday has its own emblem – a homespun Tatar towel with a red ornament against a blue sky. This symbol was chosen in an art competition in 2004.
• Eggs were dyed on Sabantuy – almost like on Orthodox Easter. They were used during the holiday in various fun contests. And from the products collected by children from all the houses of the village, they cooked “crow porridge”. Why “crow” is not very clear, but a number of researchers believe that such a name is associated with the pagan cult of birds.

• Once upon a time, women also participated in wrestling competitions at the festival, and in this case it was rather reckless to call them the weaker sex. For example, in the XII century, the daughter of the emir of the Volga Bulgaria Shamgun-Saina defeated her husband-batyr and even broke his ribs. But in Bashkiria, only men have always been the main ones at the holiday, since sowing grain was considered a purely male occupation.
• The traditional delicacy of Sabantuy is chak-chak, Tatar honey cake. At first, it was considered exclusively a wedding dish, and then it migrated to the tables of other holidays. In 2016, at the Federal Sabantuy in Nizhny Novgorod, they prepared a 200-kilogram chak-chak, which was treated to everyone.
• It is believed that during the “plow wedding” young boys and girls have a good chance to meet their destiny. If two people met on this day and liked each other, then now, as they say, you can’t spill them with water. And marriage in Sabantuy does promise love to the grave and all sorts of family well-being.