Nauryz (Nauryz Meyrami) – non-religious Kazakh folk celebration of the vernal (spring) equinox and of the symbolic renewal of nature. It is believed that it originates from ancient Mesopotamia. In Babylon the New Year was celebrated on the 21st day of the month of Nissanu (corresponding to March-April) with festivities held further 12 days, each commemorated with individual rites, amusements and performances.

The present day name of Nauriz derives from the Persian Novruz translated as a new day. In Kazakhstan Nauriz is certain to have been celebrated in pre-Islamic times and later. During the Soviet period, it was declared ideologically inconsistent and was “hushed–up”. Nauriz has a remarkable endurance and survival capacity through a long and dramatic history of Kazakhstan and was formally reinstated as a public holiday in Kazakhstan in 1988.

During the course of history Nauriz became a symbolic Kazakh New Year in Kazakhstan, official calendar being kept as everywhere in the world. Nowadays it is one of the most favourite holidays in Kazakhstan. Kazakhs also often refer to Nauriz as “Ulystin uly kuni” which means “the great day of the nation”. Nauriz remains also a strong tradition in the countries of Central Asia as well as in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey.

At its core, the Nauriz festival celebrates the awakening of Nature. This awakening symbolizes the triumph of good, the Spring, winning against the evil forces of darkness that are represented by the Winter. Nauriz is the point when the oppressive presence of the cold Winter finally begins to retrieve with the commencement of the lively and hopeful Spring. This symbolic and poetic change corresponds to the mathematical instance of the sun leaving the zodiac of Pisces and entering the zodiacal sign of Aries, also known as the Spring Equinox.

Since Nauriz’s central theme is renewal and joy hence is the tradition on the eve of Nauriz to thoroughly clean you house, return all your debts, forgive all offences and resentments and to make peace with all with whom you were at odds. It is believed that Nauriz night brings luck and realisation of wishes. Therefore one has to greet it with clear soul and mind and to fill all the vessels at home with milk, grain or spring water so that prosperity never leaves one’s household. But Nauriz is not only about festivities and dastarkhan. During the month you have to help the land to clear its life-giving arteries – to clean natural and artificial water channels and chutes, water wells and springs sprinkling them with hallowed milk thus wishing fertility to Mother – land; cultivation, planting and other agricultural work are to be started.

In the last years Nauriz was reborn. Nauriz celebrations start on 21 March and last for one month. Many sports and cultural events are held during this month throughout the country. It became a loved holiday of each citizen of Kazakhstan, symbol of unity and peace.

First of all, the main challenge for our team was how to name the wiki. There were so many ideas and we decided to stop on Future Famous Fabulous because this is the theme we are interested in. Future Famous Fabulous people usually get all people’s attention and it was quite knowledgable for us to find the information about different famous people. We found more interesting and usefull info about them and shared with the other groups. Their comments were kind enough to bring us even more interest in doing what we did.

The second uneasy thing to do was to find out how to make those comments, how to post the information, but after we found out how to do them it became like a usual thing that we do in the I-net.

Why I think that people need the wikis nowadays, is simply because in a century of info and techs we need to share the experience or the info and need to see the feedback from the other people all over the world to find out the different angles and perspective of different people to have a broader view on things. So that means that by doing all that stuff our whole system of thinking is becoming wider and we look on things from a larger perspective. That is exactly why we need wikis today. And I’m glad that I found out about wikis in the class of newinfotechs because with this experience I’m simply learning new things.

This is a brief History of The Great Women’s Day:

At 8-th of March 1857 American women – textile workers of New York City held a demonstration over town streets. They were protesting against the low earnings and bad trade conditions.
At 19 century , women began to defend for their human rights. Strong gender segregation and a small percentage of employed women in industrially developed countries marked the years prior to the historical 1910. Those who were employed worked exclusively in the textile industry, manufacture, and as service staff in households. They worked in very bad conditions, and for extremely small pay. At the same time, great crises repeatedly strike the industry. Women workers’ coalitions, which did not belong to the trade unions, found themselves in an unenviable position, while the unions gained more and more strength. In Europe, Great Britain, America, and to a lesser extent Australia, women lobby ever more for their suffrage. This struggle seemed as if it suppressed all other aspects of women’s lives, and new, revolutionary changes were getting a visible shape.

Clara Cetkin from German Socialist Party – a strong advocate of women’s suffrage, had a great influence over the international socialist movement. Clara Cetkin incited by the happenings and the actions of American women workers, shaped the demand for marking a single day in a year, when women would lobby for their interests. Over a hundred women from 17 countries attended the Conference, representing trade unions, socialist parties, women workers’ clubs. As the result the suggestion of Clara Cetkin was accepted unanimously, of the marking the Women’s Day. On the conference, the importance of women’s suffrage was once again confirmed: the right to vote, which would not be based on the rights of property. Namely, some socialists held that women’s suffrage would easier be attained through realizing rights of ownership, while others, including the German activist - Clara Cetkin, and the Russian activist – Alexandra Kollontai, fought for the realization of this right as a obligatory and separate part of the socialist program. A universal suffrage was also demanded – for all adult women and men. One of the conclusions of the conference was also to proclaim work at night as dangerous for women’s health. Workers from Sweden and Denmark opposed this, for, as they stated, it was work during night shift that was an irreplaceable source of income. It was also demanded that the rights of married mothers be made equal to those of single mothers, for which Alexandra Kollontai fought vigorously, but her efforts did not give results.

1913-1914, Russia – As part of the pacifist movement, which started its activities in the eve of the First World War, Russian women marked the Women’s Day for the first time, on the last Sunday of February 1913. Elsewhere in Europe, the Women’s Day was celebrated on, or around, the 8th of March, either as an antiwar protest, or as an expression of solidarity with the women of Russia.

1917, Russia – 2 million Russian soldiers dead in the war. Once again, Russian women chose the last Sunday of February to mark Women’s day, and demand rights to “bread and peace”. The political top of Russia opposed the timing of the strike, but the women went on anyway …

Four days later, the Russian Tsar abdicated, and the temporary government guaranteed women the right to vote. This historical Sunday, according to the Julian calendar, which was at that time in use in Russia, went on the 23rd of February, and according to the otherwise used Gregorian calendar, on the 8th of March. It was taken as the day when the entire world will mark the international holiday – Women’s Day. Women and women’s organizations around the world mark Women’s Day, and many countries have it for a national holiday So as you see Russia celebrates Women Day from 1913 till nowadays.

As you see The 8th of March is typically celebration of feminist and women’s rights groups. But at the meanwhile, as life in Russia is different from that in the USA in many ways the 8th of March is one of most favorite holiday for all Russian women and along with New Year and Christmas and Valentine’s Day it is also one of most romantic holiday.

This Holiday also came to Kazakhstan in the year of the Soviet Union. Women of Kazakhstan proud to celebrate this Day!

HAPPY HOLIDAY GREAT WOMEN! MOTHERS, GRANDMOTHERS, WIFES, DAUGHTERS, SISTERS! THIS IS OUR DAY! =)

What I like about this page is I can totally use my creativity and decorate my page the way I want it because this site allows interesting ways to do it. You can visit that site and see how people enjoy communicating there.

Dame Helen Mirren, best actress nominee for the Queen says to BBC:

“It is one of the hardest roles to play, not just a living person but one who is part of our everyday lives in Britain. I hope that my performance has conveyed a sense of Elizabeth the woman as well as the Queen.”

Eddie Murphy, supporting actor for Dreamgirls says:

“Without a doubt, receiving this nomination will stand out as one of the highlights of my career.”

Penelope Cruz, best actress nominee for Volver says:

“They said my name and it’s like for a few seconds everything stopped. I was a little bit overwhelmed and confused. I wasn’t sure what was going on.”

We’re going to see whether their views will change or not when they win or lose the Oscar 2007!

On the meeting with government heads he said:

“My stance is the following – I think there should be between 5 to 7 programmes maximum. They will define the priorities for the attainment of tangible results. I am talking not simply about the reduction in Government-approved programmes, but about the general change in the approach to planning and management.”

He also added:

“Local executive agencies will be granted certain independence in financial management. Simultaneously, control over the final results which we will use to estimate the quality of your work will be intensified.”

The government heads are going to discharge their obligation’s under the control of the new Prime-Minister.

Sitting at home and thinking of what should I write as the entry to the weblog, I suddenly think of how important is the role of the technology nowadays. See, how fast the technology is developing and people try to catch up with the novelties everyday.

The following questions are: When we all going to see the end of the developments? When people are going to exhaust the limits of their geniality? And where is the bottom line of people’s inventions?

Despite the fact that the world is not ready enough to give us the answer to such questions we still have some guesses. Our formed views on the developments bring us some positive and negative sides.

Organizations like NEDO or ITDG show us the importance of how the technologies can help people and save the world. With the help of technology people can fight with climate changes, epidemies and illnesses. Another positive side of technological world is that we live in a Global Village which makes us be informed and have the wide view on the world.

However, the world is more concerned on how the developments can negatively influence on people. The advanced technologies cause terrorism attacks, air pollution, illnesses and what’s more important Global Warming!

How could it happen that the technologies which where invented for the people’s sake may bring the opposite effect and damage everything?

Overall, I think that here goes dilemma when humanity cannot predict whether the technology can save or destroy the system which is called the World.