It is an annual tradition in Uzbekistan. As December draws to a close, a happy mood descends, people begin to reflect on the past twelve months and reflect on what they expect. And then the fight begins.
There are two fields clearly marked in battle for the New Year holidays. Conservative Muslims consider it un-Uzbek and unacceptably secular. His opponents can’t see the uproar, insisting that the day is just a good opportunity to have fun and release some steam.
But a couple of weeks ago, the well-known and respected theologian Abdulaziz Mansur made a significant contribution to breaking the deadlock with filmed sermon in which he decreed that marking the arrival of January 1 is not, in fact, a violation of the religious canon. Anyone who described the holiday as a sinner ignores Islamic principles, he said.
His intervention can help take advantage of a debate that has been boiling for more than a decade.
Uzbekistan officially began celebrating New Year’s Day on January 1, 1948. About a week earlier, the Soviet authorities had designated the first day of the year as a holiday, and therefore , a whole customs pool was brought to life. The decidedly non-Islamic drink of Soviet champagne would accompany the Soviet Socialist Republic of Uzbekistan for lots of holidays plov.
Many of the rituals differed little from those observed in the capital, Moscow. The arrival of midnight was initiated by the bells of the Kremlin clock broadcast on television. The town squares were decorated with trees laden with lights, tinsel, and ornaments. Ded moroz, the Slavic world’s response to Santa Claus, and his helper Snegurochka entertained the children. Classical films, most notably the 1976 comedy The Irony of Fate, were dubbed into Uzbek and were shown on local television.
Many things began to change with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Religious families gradually eliminated the practice of celebrating the new year, which was considered a Soviet excess and a holiday with Christian nuances. In fact, Christians in the Orthodox world celebrate Christmas on January 7, but the Soviet regime approved a lot of Christian symbolism for its secular New Year’s Eve party.
The government also took part in the party poop act. In December 2004, Anvar Zakirov, head of the public education department of Tashkent City Council, issued instructions to stop holding end-of-year parties.
Zakirov argued that Uzbekistan should mark the spring break Nowruz – properly a pre-Islamic tradition. Any other party is contrary to Uzbek culture and should therefore be undone, he said.
As a result, New Year’s trees disappeared from high schools, although many elementary schools in Tashkent defied the ban, as teachers were unwilling to deprive their positions of a long-awaited vacation.
A nursery school teacher, who spoke to Eurasianet on condition of anonymity, recalled the year they had to keep the tree hidden from view.
“Some classes celebrated the new year in secret. It is difficult to explain all this to children. They memorize poems and receive gifts from Ded Moroz. And parents also feel joy and want to celebrate with their children, ”said the teacher.
In December 2012, the authorities nailed a ban to Ded Moroz and Snegurochka, as well as some other auxiliary seasonal characters, such as the witch of Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga. The arguments made then were familiar: they are not traditional Uzbek characters and do not reflect the local mentality.
The suggestion made at the time was to replace these figures with characters from Uzbek folk tales. But while there is a rough local equivalent of Baba Yaga, there is no figure similar to Ded Moroz.
That was how the New Year’s Eve hero cast had returned in two years, thanks in large part to a fatwa promulgated by the Muslim Spiritual Directorate of Uzbekistan. The decree stated that celebrating the new year is “allowed from the point of view of common sense and sharia law.”
However, the devotees have remained in their positions.
Atabek Melibayev, whose father is a mullah in a village in the Ferghana Valley, recalls that his family last celebrated the feast in 2004.
“But the following year, my father said that from then on there would be no more trees or parties. At the time, I couldn’t understand why our father had suddenly banned the new year. Then my mother said that for Muslims, Nowruz is the real new year, ”Melibayev told Eurasianet.
Not everyone is so doctrinal.
“My father is also a believer, but we always celebrate the new year at home with a tree and a party dastarkhan [meal]. The only thing is that our dastarkhan has no alcohol, ”said Javlon Ermarov, a resident of Kokand.
Bakhtiyar Babadjanov, a renowned scholar of Islam, said debates about religion are largely superfluous in any case, as the New Year holidays have left behind their religious touches.
“It’s just that some zealous Islamic leaders need to exploit all of this to convert their co-religionists and sow division among the public,” he told Eurasianet. “In this way it is easier to influence and direct them. The end justifies any means. “
Babadjanov noted that in some Middle Eastern nations, such as the United Arab Emirates, the custom of planting seasonal trees has become unhindered.
“But we’re slipping back into the Middle Ages,” he said.
As with so many other changes, the loosening of bans is attributed to the more relaxed style of government initiated by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who came to power in 2016 after the death of Islam Karimov. Similar to the Russian president, Mirziyoyev makes a New Year’s Eve television greeting on December 31, in Uzbek and Russian.
Beruniy Alimov, a university professor in Tashkent, argued that there could no longer be legislation for the new year.
“If someone doesn’t want to mark the new year, this is their own business. But this category of people should not impose their opinions on others. The world is pluralistic and should be the same in Uzbekistan. Alimov he told Eurasianet.