Festivals in Semiz
Semiz is home to the largest Mexican community in Central Asia. Three times a year its festivals are some of the best in Talas, where Mexican and Iradi customs have grown together.
The Fallen Rider procession, Semiz cemetery.
Families from Sinaloa, Durango and Sonora came to work at the beef plants from 1998 and stayed. Today Semiz, la Colonia to its Mexican residents and Meksikanka to everyone else in Talas, has around 23,000 people, a dozen tortillerías and a parish that holds Mass in Spanish. Catholicism and a love of horses made it feel at home fast.
Eki Eldin At Oyunu, around 16 September
"The horse games of two peoples" take place at the Lienzo Charro de Semiz, the district's rodeo ring, around Mexican Independence Day. Charros rope and the women's escaramuza teams ride their drills next to Iradi kyz kuu (the "chase the girl" race), the alaman-bayge and an ulak demonstration. Bull events are held on a separate day, a half-joke at the expense of Iradi grandmothers, who say cattle bring bad luck.
Day of the Dead and the Fallen Rider, 1 and 2 November
The Mexican Day of the Dead and Iradi All Souls' have grown into one festival. Families build ofrendas at home and on the graves, and the Semiz cemetery, with its Orthodox, Korean and Catholic sections, is covered in marigolds grown from imported seed. Locals call them "Mexican flowers". Iradi husbands and wives add white ribbons and bowls of milk to the graves, as Iradis do.
In the evening a procession crosses the district, led by a riderless horse with its saddle turned backwards. The custom began in 2008 for those who died in 2007, and many mixed families now lead a horse behind the coffin at funerals too.
Visitors are welcome to watch the procession and walk among the graves. Keep your voice down, don't step on the ofrendas, and ask before photographing a family's grave.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, 12 December
The Church of St. Yusup the Worker, consecrated in 2005, has a Guadalupe chapel, approved in 2006. Its image was painted by Iradi icon painters and is framed with the Iradi cross. Her feast on 12 December draws Iradis from across the city as well as Semiz's own families.
Visiting Semiz
- Semiz is 25 minutes from central Talas by marshrutka (every 15 minutes, 2 som), and city bus 14 runs there from the Old City.
- The Semiz market is open daily and busiest on Saturday.
- Eat on the high street: tacos, fresh tortillas and the panadería.
- Sunday Mass in Spanish is at the Church of St. Yusup the Worker.