Monday, March 30, 2009

Novruz Bayram

On the first day of Spring (March 20th), Carolyn & Jesse invited us to a traditional Azerbaijan celebration (they spent a year in Azerbaijan for the Peacecorps). They dressed the parts of hostess & host, but Carolyn couldn't keep a straight face for the picture. Apparently, Azeri people don't smile for pictures. :)


The Group: Kenton, Carolyn, Helen, Brian, Jacque, Stu, Jesse (partially covered by me), Katrina & Finn. Carolyn & Jesse made some of their favorite Azeri foods, like kabobs & plov. Yumm! Finn tried most of it, but he seemed a little relieved when I offered him a peanut butter & jelly sandwich that I'd brought just in case. What a good sport!


We played a game with hard boiled eggs where you hit yours against the other person's. The person whose egg remains intact continues on to attack the next person.


Amazingly, I won the game & broke almost everyone else's eggs. :)


Here I am with the winning egg!


Next, we jumped over a mini bonfire. We chanted something in Azerbaijani that has to do with casting all your bad luck into the fire...or something. It was tricky to say but we all took a turn.


Even Finn took a turn...the blur is Kenton helping Finn jump over the fire.


Some of the group finished the night by smoking strawberry lemonade flavored tobacco in a hookah that Carolyn & Jesse brought back from their time in Europe. It was a fun evening & Finn did really well with all the grown-ups. :)

**Carolyn & Jesse will have to correct me if I got anything wrong or mispelled anything. :)

5 comments:

Jesse said...

Woah! I'm totally impressed with your use of Azeri! Thanks for coming to our holiday celebration and being open to our kinda crazy foods! Next up: boiled cow head soup!

Carolyn Williams said...

I don't have any corrections! Nice job, Katrina! I'm glad you guys were able to come.

Jax said...

definitely a fun night! so glad that we were able to be a part of your celebration. and im going to just come out and say, "i'll pass" on the cow head soup jesse...

Jax said...

i also wanted to clarify that we were glad that we were able to be a part of "the" celebration...instead of "your"...geez...im such a nerd...

hechtr said...

What a fun party! and That's our girl, the Egg Winner! Good job Katrina!