Navruz

In Uzbekistan Navruz on 21 March is a public holiday by law and the high point of weeks of spring festivities; Tashkent even has a dedicated Navruz Park.

The main dish is sumalak, cooked all night in a cauldron from sprouted wheat as women take turns stirring, singing and making wishes. Tables hold halim, green samsa and spring-herb dishes, and kurash wrestling and ulak-kupkari horse games are held.

The holiday

Tashkent hosts the festive Navro'z ayyomi concert, neighbourhoods (mahallas) lay charity tables, and elders and people living alone are visited.