Holidays and Festivals of Uzbekistan contents

from flour and sprouted wheat grains. Sumalyak is cooked slowly on wood 

fire, sometimes with addition of spices. Sprouted grain is the symbol of life, 

heat, abundance and health.  

On March 21, Kazakh and Kyrgyz households fumigate their homes with 

smoke from the buring of archa twigs (a coniferous tree of Central Asian that 

grows mainly in mountainous areas). This smoke is said to make malicious 

spirits flee. The main holiday dishes for Turkic Central Asians are pilaf, 

shurpa, boiled mutton and kok-samsa pies filled with spring greens and the 

young sprouts of steppe grasses. According to tradition, people try to make 

the celebratory table (dastarkhan) as rich as possible with various dishes and 

sweets. Everyone at the table should be full and happy to ensure that the 

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