Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan Baku International Multiculturalism Centre Azerbaijani Multiculturalism Textbook for Higher Education

What does Lady Ladle want?


She wants rain from God.


She wants grass for the sheep


And milk for the lambs, b-a-a-a.

The Avars living in Azerbaijan have a similar ritual. A boy aged between 12 and 15 is decked out in grass and tree branches. He is called ‘a rain donkey’. The ritual is accompanied by the song:

Let it rain five days long,


Let it rain for the orphans.


Let it rain heavily in the dark of night,


Let it rain for the old women.


Amen, o Allah!

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The common features of these games are that the main players are boys playing the parts of animals (lambs and donkeys) who try to influence nature by singing songs.

The ethnic minorities living in Azerbaijan also have sayachi (counting) rituals, which are mainly performed in spring. These rituals are to ensure abundance and fertility, especially in sheep-breeding. The Sakhurs, for example, perform a lambing ritual. In this ritual, products from sheep’s milk – cheese, sour cream, cream, curds and butter – are sent as gifts to people when the lambs start to eat green grass. This ritual too shares a common feature of most rituals: making a sacrifice (giving a gift is seen as making a sacrifice) in order to satisfy others and ensure fertility and abundance.

The spring ritual most deserving of mention, since it covers the widest geographical area and most nations, is the Novruz holiday. The traditions and customs of the Azerbaijani Turks at Novruz are also seen amongst other ethnic groups living in Azerbaijan, such as the Talysh, Kurds, Tats, Lezghis, Avars and Sakhurs. There is no doubt that the similarity in the traditions and customs of these minorities at Novruz (and Ramadan and the Feast of the Sacrifice) is influenced by their shared faith, Islam. However, the Novruz traditions and customs are also observed by the Christian Udis. The Udis used to celebrate the spring holiday in the middle of March by cooking their national dish harsa (made from wheat) and dyeing eggs red. Children would take a bag and walk from house to house, asking for gifts and picking the first spring flowers, known as Novruz flowers. They would also sing this song:

Novruz flower, Novruz flower,


Bring one, bring two, bring eggs!

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They would also light bonfires in their yards in the evenings and jump over them, singing:


Let my pain and sorrow stay in the fire, Let the fire take away my pain and sorrow!

It’s an important sign of multicultural values that the Christian Udis, just like their Muslim compatriots, should dye eggs as a symbol of birth and fertility and light fires and jump over them as a symbol of purity.

Multicultural values are prominent in rites of passage, just as they are in seasonal rituals. We will take a general look at mourning and marriage ceremonies to see the truth of that statement.

Special ceremonies to mourn the dead are typical of most nations, including those living in Azerbaijan. It is not surprising that the Azerbaijani Turks and the ethnic minorities in Azerbaijan should all have traditional mourning music. The examples of elegies and laments collected and published in Azerbaijan belong to many of the nationalities living here. The collection of these examples is a sign of common values. The idea of thanksgiving­ is another common value of funeral ceremonies. In Islam excessive crying for the dead, particularly in the evening, is considered ‘not pleasing to Allah’. The Christian nations living in Azerbaijan share these ideas. For example, the Udis consider any kind of mourning and crying for the dead after sunset, when lights have been switched on, as humiliation of the soul of the deceased. This applies to people who come late to a funeral too.

There is, of course, a reason for the abstention from excessive mourning of the deceased. According to their faith, no one dies; instead people leave this transient, mortal life for an eternal one. Therefore, excessive crying for the deceased is unacceptable. Today

Azerbaijanis frequently use the expression ‘to change worlds’ to refer to someone dying. This has the meaning of leaving this world for the next. Death is, therefore, believed to depend on the will of God. The death of any close person, regardless of their age, should be accepted with forbearance.

Muslims in Azerbaijan treat Christian customs with respect, calling churches ‘the house of God’. Christians treat Muslim traditions with the same respect. The Udis, who have similar ceremonial traditions to the Muslim nations, do not serve pork at their ceremonial events. At wedding or funeral feasts, they have animals slaughtered by Azerbaijani Turks or Lezghis to ensure there is no concern about the meat dishes. This is a sign of mutual respect among the various nations that live side by side.

It is not surprising that nations that live together and respect one another should have very similar wedding traditions. The brother or brother-in-law of the bride tying a red ribbon around her waist, carrying a mirror in front of the bride, throwing water after the bride, breaking a plate under her feet, taking a chicken to her house are all shared wedding traditions of the various ethnic minorities living in Azerbaijan. The main purpose behind these traditions is to achieve the happiness of the young couple. Abundance and prosperity are considered a condition of happiness, so people wish good fortune to the bride and that she bring abundance to the house of the bridegroom.

Symbols of abundance and prosperity are especially important at weddings. For example, amongst the Ingiloy, when the bride arrives at her future home, a woman greets her holding a tray. According to tradition, there should be lit candles, bread, butter and honey on the tray. When the bride enters the house, she is given the tray and an old woman of the family puts a spoonful of honey in her mouth, puts dough in her hand and a silk cocoon on her head. The honey symbolizes sweetness and friendship in the

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family, the dough the bread she will bake from that day onwards (as well as a sign of prosperity), and the cocoon represents the hope that the bride will always wear silk.

Decorating a branch of a tree is another widespread symbol of prosperity and fertility at weddings. A metre or metre and a half-long branch is decorated with expensive gifts, fruit, sweets and pastries. This tradition is popular among the Crimean Tatars, Gagauz, Anatolian Turks, Uzbeks, and the people of Lahij and various regions of Azerbaijan, including Shirvan.

Decorating a tree branch is part of a belief in a World Tree. One of the elements of this belief is the apple. Even in regions where branches are not decorated, an apple is nevertheless a symbol at weddings. Azerbaijani folktales often feature rejuvenation after eating a magic apple, or the birth of a child after eating an apple. At weddings, therefore, the apple is a symbol of life and birth. In the Nakhchivan region of Azerbaijan the bridegroom throws an apple to the bride, while in Shaki-Zaqatala a bride conveys her consent to marriage through an apple: an apple is put on a plate and sent to the future bride. She cuts it in two, eats one half and sends the other back to the bridegroom as a sign of her consent. But if the girl sends back the whole apple, it means that she does not give her consent to the marriage. This is especially typical of the Udis. Another apple tradition, widespread among the Ingiloy, is shooting at an apple. The Ingiloy put an apple on the top of a tree near the yard gate. According to the tradition, a man from the family of the bridegroom should shoot at the apple, after which the groom’s family is allowed to enter the yard of the bride. This tradition most probably indicates the magic power of the apple.

Other marriage rituals are designed to protect the newly weds from disaster and the evil eye. The burning of rue to ward off the evil eye is the most widespread of these rituals. Other folk rituals

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to give protection from the evil eye, popular amongst the minority peoples of Azerbaijan, can also be found in the epic Book of Dada Qorqud. For example, the young men of the village tie the skull of an animal to the top of a tree. According to tradition, evil spirits try to obstruct the marriage of the young man by using a dragon. The animal skull symbolizes the dragon and is called ajdaha (dragon). The young men shoot at the ‘dragon’ in turn. The young man who shoots down the skull or destroys it with a shot is considered the winner.

Interestingly, in February 1951, the great poet Samad Vurghun attended a wedding in the village of Nij in Qabala District. He shot at the skull on top of a tree and destroyed it in a single shot. The poet compared this moment in the wedding to the arrow shooting ritual at the wedding of Bamsi Beyrak in the Book of Dada Qorkud. He thanked the Udis for preserving the ancient traditions. The similarity between shooting at the skull and shooting at the dragon in the tale of Bamsi Beyrak shows the common values of the Udis and the Azerbaijanis.

These seasonal rituals and rites of passage are essential indicators of the tolerance and multiculturalism of Azerbaijan.