last Thursday, starting with a bang in the early evening to get to the village of Chargaïta, in which must take place the next morning ceremony Jylgayak, New Year's Altai (one more!), also seen as welcome spring. Despite
phone number and address to many people, I arrived in the village at night, the taxi refused to wait for the phone to explain my guests and I find myself alone in the dark. Here, no lamp to illuminate a potential road.
I move into the houses still burning in order to ask for directions. Arriving near one of them, I look first to the gate, but suddenly the light goes out. No time to lose, I crossed the fence, and advancing on the lookout for potential guard dogs, I'm heading for the door izbouchka (the small hut). I
cap. "Who is it? "In Altai.
"It's Compassionate, the French," I reply, to stimulate curiosity, or at least to erase all fear. Opens
then a small man, eyeing me before inviting me to enter. I noticed right away that he wears a kêdêguê, fine braid traditional men from the summit of the skull, ornamented at its extremity two shells. He also wears an earring, and the only person I've seen so far in pay was a shaman.
I asked for his help to guide me, explains the reason for my coming into the village. He then told me that he is shaman, also Zaisan, that is to say an elected official of the village. This means it is considered a respectable connoisseur of ancient traditions.
He will lead the next day's ceremony, taking place not at sunrise, as would the tradition, but by late morning, because people from other villages in the district will be there to observe and learn from him what to do.
I then moved home to sleep. How to refuse the invitation of the shaman?
The next morning, we travel the entire community to prepare the venue of the festival. Three sheep were slaughtered (by the Turkish method: an incision is made in the abdomen, there's hand slips and the main artery leaving the heart is cut, a drop of blood is spread on land as well). In the lobby of City Hall, the son of a shaman to cut the cooking.
We assemble tables, decorate the stadium. The guests and the public arrives, and the ceremony begins. As described in a previous blog post, libations and offerings are made to fire.
The shaman before the fire when offerings
Then the children gathered around a pile of snow began to hit him with rods, one close to winter to leave. A white knight then destroys the heap, and the children take leave of him: "See you next year!"
The meal is then served. We enjoy the "mun" (broth), of "Kocho" (in which the broth is added and rolled oats), "boursakh" (small balls of fried dough) of mutton boiled of course, cakes and tea Altai (salted, with milk and "talkhan" toasted millet flour, the remedy against hunger).
whole village then goes to the House of Culture, where we see various performances: songs and dances and Russian Altai, speeches and wishes of the administration officials, speeches by guests, the theme of theater Tataraskaï , character ugly, dirty and rude in which the heroes of the epics turns to escape his enemies. Grim so, he managed to deceive and defeat them.
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