World Monitor Magazine #1 WM march 2018 (1) | Page 26

CULTURE
Kazakh customs and traditions
If we ever wanted to set
a goal to tell about all the
customs and traditions of
Kazakh people in one article, it
would be a very long one. This
material is a brief narrative
about the brightest and most
interesting customs and
traditions of Kazakhs.
The richest culture of Kazakh people
has been preserved through a variety of
customs and traditions that have been
honored and passed on from generation
to generation for ages. Historical events
and religious views greatly influenced
and formed these ages’ old traditions.
Many traditions in particular are rooted in
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Tengrianism, which is pagan impressions
about the world that existed way before
the introduction of Islam, but at the
same time they are closely intertwined
with Muslim customs. This led to a
symbiosis of customs and traditions in
Kazakh culture, which blend well and
complement each other pervading all
stages of people’s lives: birth of a child,
pregnancy and labor, wedding, married
life, upbringing children at varies stages,
hospitality and reception of guests,
celebrations and memorials, funerary
rites, and many other moments and
spheres of people’s lives.
It is important to notice Kazakh
traditional reverence to the older
generation, appreciation of their
wisdom, respect of ancestors. It is an
honor and obligation for any Kazakh
to know all their ancestors, seven
generations back. This tradition comes
from Tengrianism. According to ancient
beliefs, a person has a soul that does
not require food, rather the soul’s food
is Aruakh – the spirit of ancestors. If
a person commits something wrong,
he or she insults the Aruakhs (spirits),
which then shows no worship to Tengri,
the essence of all being. That is why
people clearly knew that their deeds will
be reflected on their following seven
generations. If a man or a woman
lived worthy and with the dignity of
the spirits, these spirits would be