Azerbaijan – The land of Fire

The word ‘Azerbaijan’ means ‘the land of fire’ and the word ‘Baku’ means ‘the city of winds’. The name says it all; in Azerbaijan there are many places where there is centuries’ old naturally lit fire due to the seepage of natural gas from the soil. Baku as the name says is the city of winds that witness very fast winds and an unpredictable weather. I came to Azerbaijan in August 2011 and immediately fell in love with this great country with its friendly and hospitable people. Azerbaijan and Pakistan has many similarities in terms of culture, language and history. Like Pakistan was colonized by the British, Azerbaijan was colonized by the Bolshevik Russians, who tried to suppress Azeri language and religion. Similar to Kashmir dispute is the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia, where Azerbaijani territory has been occupied by a belligerent neighbor.

A Bride dancing during her wedding

Wedding Culture in Azerbaijan is very exciting and full of festivity. Every Azeri wedding is like a mega celebrity wedding with lots of guests, food, and dances.   A wedding usually starts at 6 p.m. and continues until mid night where food keeps coming all the time and people eat and dance like there is no tomorrow. The most interesting feature of an Azerbaijani wedding is the special and mesmerizing dance by the Bride and Groom. Like Pakistan, all the guests pay cash gifts to the newlywed couple as a honeymoon gift.

Azerbaijani cuisine is one of the most rich and sumptuous cuisines.  When someone invite you at his/her place expect the dinner to last for 5-6 hours, where food will comprise of 5-6 courses and the host will urge you to continue eating. The dinner will always have the national meal, Aash, dolma, and Pakhlawa. Aash is a pilaf with rice, mutton and dry fruits whereas dolma is a mixture of minced meat and rice steamed inside the grape leaf. Pakhlawa is a sweet dish made up of wheat, sugar, butter and nuts.

Novruz is a national festival celebrated with the great excitement and zeal. Novruz celebrates the arrival of spring. Its history dates back to the Zoroastrian people, who used to dance around fire to welcome spring. The Azerbaijani state officially observes a national holiday for one week, and organize national level celebrations. People light fire in every nook and corner of the country and jump over it. The superstition is that if you jump over the fire, all your bad luck for the coming year will vanish in the fire.  People also cook many sweet dishes and share it with guests and neighbors. Pakhlawa, Sakarbura, and Badam Bura are the sweet dishes that they never miss during the Novruz.  Children rings the call bells of neighbors, put their hats in front of the door, and hide. According to the Azerbaijani custom, the neighbor put sweets and dry fruits in the hat for the children. People also listen secretly to their neighbor’s talk and believe that the first good thing they hear will become true for them. Another interesting feature of Novruz is the egg fight; people hit boiled eggs together, the person whose egg is cracked first loses the game. People also set the Novruz special tray that contains some grass in the center and seven different types of dry fruits, sweets, eggs, and candles all around.

Novruz Special Tray

Another important festival is the ‘Pomegranate Festival’ that is celebrated in Goychay, a city famous for its pomegranate farms. During the pomegranate festival, people make a lot of food items for pomegranate and serve it to all the guests and visitors for free. They make fresh pomegranate juice, pomegranate jam, pomegranate sauce, and pomegranate wine. They also present fresh pomegranates to all visitors as a gift. People in Goychay believe that if a couple get married during the pomegranate festival then they will surely live happily ever after. There are many couples who get married during the Pomegranate festival under the state patronage.

Pomegranates from all over Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani language has a lot of similarities with Urdu; it comes from the Turkic family of languages that uses many Persian and Arabic words. If you know Urdu you can easily learn Azerbaijani. Like the word Kuca means Street, and the word Muktab means School. The word Kitab means Book, and Shagird means Pupil.

Azerbaijani Pilaf is very similar to Kashmiri pilaf, and it contains mutton rice and different dry fruits. Azerbaijani Qutab is very similar to our Paratha and Peraski is very similar to our Samosa.

Azerbaijan is also one of the fastest growing economies with around 30 % of growth per annum. In addition to a booming oil industry, Azerbaijan is also rapidly growing in construction, banking, food processing, IT, and tourism sectors. This year Eurovision, the European Song contest is also coming to Azerbaijan that will bring millions of tourists to the vibrant city of Baku. Eurovision is something about which everyone is so excited in Azerbaijan and the city of Baku has been preparing to host millions of tourists who will land in Baku to witness the song contest.

Azerbaijan recently started a world class Diplomatic Academy that functions on the American model of higher Education. All the faculty members at Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy have PhD’s from leading American, British, and German Universities. The graduates of Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy (ADA) are working with various International Organizations as well as Foreign ministries of their respective governments. ADA is the only university in the Central Asia and Caucasus region that has a green campus that uses solar and bio-thermal energy, has rain water collection system and is environmentally sustainable. ADA offers fellowships to all admitted foreign students that cover tuition and housing.

Football is the most popular sport in Azerbaijan, where everyone from age 3-80 is a fan of football teams. People play football all the time, and even in the densely populated city of Baku they still find space to built football fields.