Elza Badaeva, About Zul

Elza reminisces about how her family celebrated Zul when she was small:Zul is when people add a year to their age. People make special boat-shaped candle holders from dough, where they stick wicks the number of which should be equal to the age of those whom it is dedicated to, plus one wick which is put ‘for the coming year’. If you are 30, for example, you need to stick 31 wicks. Apart from that, people made an additional candle-holder from dough but with 9 wicks inside. These candles should be put outside. In the past, we had a wooden barrel in the middle of our village, where all residents used to put their candles with 9 wicks. Old people usually went around this barrel several times, putting coins on it. We, children, followed them. In the morning children ran to the barrel to collect the coins. In the village of Dzhakuevka we had a temple where my father used to go. Up to 5 monks worked there, including an astrologist. Erdni the astrologist who was from the same clan as ours used to come to our house often. My father offered him warm milk vodka. We always kept milk vodka in a special copper jug because there were no bottles at that time.Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwi