Happy birthday to us!

 

To be perfectly honest, one of the cultural differences that it took me a while to get used to when I first came here to Kyrgyzstan was the fixation that everyone seems to have when it comes to Birthdays.  Birthdays are big here, and I say big… I mean big, BIG, BIG … if not 

BIG 

 

Personally, I am not very keen on celebrating birthdays.  I suppose it could be something to do with the fact my birthday happens to fall on a public holiday here, (International Women’s Day – IWD), and the fact that I keep hearing jokes/comments about how my mother “gave herself a present” to celebrate … but, to be honest, my diffident attitude dates back a long way before I came here and even knew that IWD even existed.

When the kids ask, I simply  say that “Birthdays are for kids” and that once they get to my age they’ll understand … but, to be honest, that’s also a bit of a cop-out.

If I am being serious about it, then I suppose I don’t see anything specific about the day … it’s just another day … if something happened today – say, a child is born – then there is a reason for being joyful and celebrating, but why commemorate something that happened several years ago?  I agree that sometimes it is important to commemorate something that happened a long time ago …  but …. history is history … what was done is done and it is more important to concentrate on the present … and the future.

The reason for commemorating something that happened some time ago, it seems to me, is as a sign of respect – for example, the fallen in a war – or to focus our attention in order to learn the lessons that the events of the past can teach us in order to encourage the repetition of good things and the prevention of bad things from re-occurring.

One of the things that stuck me as odd when I first came here was the tendency to celebrate birthdays of not just people, but of almost anything.

Once, we were contracted by a company setting up a Directory service … and they wanted to know the usual details: name of the company; what sort of business we were involved in; address; telephone and fax numbers; web site and email addresses; and then they asked for the name of the Director and the “company’s birthday” – the date when the company was first founded.  That last one took me back a bit and I asked them why they needed it … and the reply came back: so that people can congratulate the company on it’s birthday, the anniversary of its founding.

Now, I was getting ready to “fire a salvo” about how people collect all sorts of information which is neither any of their business nor “relevant to the purpose”, (it’s probably something to do with my background in Information Technology and the principles of Data Protection – especially “personal data”), but …  I stopped for a moment and reflected … I have indeed seen that companies do indeed congratulate each other on their Anniversaries.  Many shops display notices that advertise special offers or discounts saying things like “Nam 15 let” – “To us 15 years”, or “We’re 15 years old!”.

Anyway, it was on 26th June, 1997 that the Ministry of Justice first registered the company so today is our birthday and the Celestial Mountains Tour Company is 15 years old.

Five years ago we celebrated our tenth anniversary with a reception … and I must admit that I did think about organizing another one this year, to mark yet another milestone.  In the end, however, I decided to keep it simple … a cake and take some time out to reflect on the lessons of history … what went well over the last 15 years?, what could have been done better? and what do we need to do to meet the challenges of the future?.

Tags: Calendar, Celestial_Mountains