HAPPY WOMEN'S DAY!!!

Before wishing everyone a Merry Women’s Day, we would like to first say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Sara’s brother, Scott. Here he is with his family, including Zoe’s cousins who will be responsible for introducing her to how wonderful farm life can be. Zoe is 8 months younger than her youngest cousin, Ty, pictured here in overalls. On to Women’s Day.

While people throughout North America will likely hear references to Women’s Day in the news today (hopefully?), we doubt few of you are taking the day off like we are. Women’s Day is a MAJOR holiday in Kazakhstan and the country is enjoying a 3-day weekend complete with requisite family gatherings and gift giving galore.

Early in the week we were informed that it is customary to give gifts to women on this day. As Sara was gently nudging Julian to make sure he was paying attention, the intended message was reiterated that it would be appropriate if we were to present gifts to the baby house director and the primary caretaker, both women. Coincidentally, our coordinator and translator (who were providing this information) are also women. So we went shopping!

We were then informed that, due to the big holiday, the baby house would be closed to visitations for the entire long weekend. Luckily our coordinator (superwoman extraordinaire) was able to negotiate a visit for us on Monday. Oh, and we should bring the gifts to the baby house on Friday, our last visit before the holiday.

Thursday evening we received a phone call from our translator reminding us that this was indeed a very big holiday and that we should not forget our gifts. To date, we have yet to receive a reminder for anything in the adoption process. We sometimes do not even receive advance notice of things involving us. We are in awe of how big this holiday must be to solicit a week’s advance notice AND a reminder from our handlers!!

The end result is that we have nothing to do this weekend except sight see, and shop. Sounds rough, but somebody has to do it. We will miss our happy little girl two days in a row, so perhaps we owe it to ourselves to have some fun.

Why the emphasis on women in Kazakhstan? We asked our translator about the history of the holiday and she laughed as she admitted that she really didn’t know. All she knew is that it was implemented during Soviet times and has remained important ever since.

Google to the rescue. (Caution –plagiarism zone ahead!)

Simply put, Women’s Day (WD) is a day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women.

It is celebrated as an official holiday not only in Kazakhstan, but in many of the former Soviet republics and other countries. It is generally observed by men giving the women in their lives - mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, etc., flowers and small gifts. Its roots, however, are in the West, possibly even the United States. Some sites report that the first official WD was observed in the United States following a declaration by the Socialist Party of America in response to rapid world industrialization and economic expansion that sparked protests over working conditions. Others place it a couple years later in Europe but acknowledge the earlier commemoration by American women as the inspiration. Unfortunately, commemorations in the West dwindled after the 1920s.

In Russia, demonstrations marking WD proved to be the first stage of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Following the October Revolution, the Bolshevik feminist Alexandra Kollontai persuaded Lenin to make it an official holiday in Russia, and it was established, but was a working day until 1965. In 1965 by the decree of the USSR Presidium of the Supreme Soviet International Women's Day was declared as a non working day in the USSR "in commemoration of outstanding merits of the Soviet women in communistic construction, in the defense of their Motherland during the Great Patriotic War, their heroism and selflessness at the front and in rear, and also marking the big contribution of women to strengthening friendship between peoples and struggle for the peace."

Here is a 1932 Soviet poster dedicated to the 8th of March holiday. The text reads: "8th of March is the day of the rebellion of the working women against the kitchen slavery" and "Down with the oppression and narrow-mindedness of the household work!". Originally in the USSR the holiday had a clear political character, emphasizing the role of the Soviet state in liberation of women from the second-class citizens' position.Over time the meaning of the holiday evolved to an apolitical celebration of women with an emphasis on their beauty and motherhood. (For the record, Sara is partial to the more traditional meaning of the holiday!)

In 1975 the United Nations gave official sanction to and began sponsoring International Women's Day. Today many events are held by women's groups around the world.

HAPPY WOMEN’S DAY to ALL the special women in our lives!!!!

(And down with the narrow-mindedness of household work!)