Chabandoz Künü

Chabandoz künü (Iradi, "Rider's day") are the two feasts of the White Rider (Ak Chabandoz). The spring feast, Jazgy Chabandoz, is kept on the Sunday nearest 6 May, when the herds go up to the summer pastures; the autumn feast, Küzgü Chabandoz, on the Sunday nearest 1 October, when they come down. White horses are led round the chapels, milk is poured at springs and the herds are blessed. Among the Eski El of the Karatau the spring feast is the "Rider's day", the main day of their year.^[1]

Folklorists argue that the Rider absorbed a pre-Christian horseman of the sky. The Syro-Iradi Catholic Church holds that the feasts honour Christ as he appeared in Janyl's vision.^[1]

References

1. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2009). Healers of the High Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press.