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Alcohol in Irad

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Alcohol in Irad is widely drunk and is part of most family and church occasions. Public-health workers regard it as the country's largest drug problem, although it is not officially counted as one (see Drug use in Irad). Vodka, introduced in the Soviet period, is the usual drink at memorial meals, among older men and in the Russian-speaking estates of Nurzhan; beer is the drink of young people in the cities; and fermented mare's milk, kymyz, is drunk daily in the countryside and is barely thought of as alcohol.[1]

Drinks

The main beer brand is Aigyr Lager, brewed since 2009 by the Aigyr Brewing Company at Kara-Bulak and the most heavily advertised.[2] Everyday wine is called sharap. The Syro-Iradi Catholic Church makes its own sweet red church wine, kamra, at Kyzyl-Senir in the Lower Naryn, and in the south families still make kömmö, wine fermented on the skins in clay jars buried in the ground.[3] About half the vines of the south were uprooted in the Soviet anti-alcohol campaign of 1985–87, and the church recovered its wine caves in 1994.[3]

The strongest traditional spirit is sygyndy ("pressings"), a pomace brandy of 45–60 percent, distilled twice in copper stills in the villages and known in Soviet times as "grape vodka". It is drunk for toasts in the south, with the winter broth tuyak, and as a remedy for colds. A green-walnut liqueur, Yuhanna jangagy, made with walnuts picked on the night of Yuhanna Tünü, is opened at Christmas.[3]

Customs

At a wedding, a toi or a memorial meal, toasts follow a fixed order led by a sözchü ("word-master") chosen by the host: to God and the White Rider, to the land, to the dead, with the first drops poured on the ground, to Janyl and the saints, to the parents, to the guests, to the children, and last to the road (jol). Kymyz is used in the Autonomous Tribal Regions and brandy or vodka in the cities, while Evangelicals and many Muslim Iradis toast with tea.[4] The church teaches moderation rather than abstinence.[1]

Health and safety

Drunk driving and the deaths of drunk men walking home in winter are recurring subjects in the Talas Herald.[5] In the tribal regions nobody polices homemade spirits.[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ St. Luka Community Health Mission (2023). Annual Report 2022: Addiction and Harm Reduction in the ISEZ. Talas.
  2. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of the Irad Special Economic Zone. Talas.
  3. ^ Talas State University Press (2019). Kymyz and Kazy: Food, Faith and Identity in Irad, pp. 91–118.
  4. ^ Talas State University Press (2019). Kymyz and Kazy: Food, Faith and Identity in Irad, pp. 23–61.
  5. ^ Talas Herald (2024). 'Third frozen death of the winter on the Chu road.' Talas.
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