I was attending the harvest festival in Songino Soum in Zavkhan. The cooperative had chosen to hold their festival on Elder's Day, a big celebration in the soum. We arrived after the program had started and were ushered into a hall full of everyone in the soum over 60 years old. Traditional dress was clearly expected, and I found myself in the midst of deels, smart felt hats, snuff bottles and vodka. Anyone who could sing or dance in the soum was on entertainment duty up on the stage. Rows and rows of thermos filled with milk tea were on the tables. I sat with the oldies, slurped my tea, slurped my mutton and potato soup and watched different characters take to the stage to tell jokes about other people present in the room. The old couple seated next to me were wearing matching maroon velvet deels, he with a smart gray felt hat, she with a matching velvet hat with purple rosettes.
The salt in the milk tea stings my throat. I nibble fresh curds offered to me and we all hang out together. I imagine the gossip and stories being exchanged. The old flames seeing each other again, or old enemies avoiding each other. The old guy opposite me pulls a vodka bottle out of his deel...stuff this milk tea, at my age life is too short! The local primary school is still operating, so school kids scuttle in and out, looking for grandparents., school bags on their backs. Several children want me to take their photograph.
It was a great idea to hold the harvest festival on this day. During a break in the program the cooperative tables are surrounded by community members, all wanting to talk and taste the foods produced. Everyone is having a great time. Maybe we need an elders' day more often?
