CULTURE
BAKU HOSTED TATAR TRADITIONAL HOLIDAY SUBANTUY
Celebration of Sabantuy, a Tatar traditional plough holiday, was organized at the Ismat Gayibov stadium in Baku on Sunday.
The festivities began with performances of the national anthems of Azerbaijan, Tatarstan and Russia. After that, a congratulatory message from President of Tatarstan in Mentimer Shaymiyev was read out. In the message, the leader of Tatarstan described Sabantuy as a symbol of the Tatar people’s national unity, and as a tradition, which passing from generation to generation, has played a key role in the formation of Tatar national culture.
The celebrations included performances of Tatar folk singers and dance groups, as well as traditional sporting competitions such as wrestling, horse racing, race-in-sack, pillar-climbing, egg-in-spoon-in-mouth-racing, sacks-battle on the crossbar, pots crashing and other contests.
Permanent representative of Tatarstan to Azerbaijan Nail Zatipoov and Ambassador of the Russian federation to Azerbaijan Vasiliy Istratov thanked the Azerbaijan’s authorities for the support in organization of the event.