A Nenets woman drops her ballot as she votes at the mobile polling station near the village Yar-Sale, located in the Yamal peninsula above the polar circle, March 11, 2004. Inhabitants of Russia's remote regions have already started voting ahead of March 14 presidential elections. PHOTO - REUTERS
DISHEVELLED, drunken toasting and compulsory card writing are the things Slovaks I have talked to most associate with International Women's Day (Medzinárodný deň žien), celebrated March 8. Observed during communism, the day has a long and flowery history here. During the old regime, it was good etiquette for a husband to start celebrating the holiday at work, toasting his female colleagues (kolegyne). When he finally called it quits and returned to his wife (manželka), he was not always in the best of form. One colleague told me that sometimes her father (otec), or her neighbours (susedia), would come home in a drunken state, squeezing a tiny bouquet (kytička) of snowdrops (snežienky), those little white flowers that appear at the beginning of spring, or carnations (karafiáty or klinčeky, in proper Slovak). A few kisses and some overly earnest words of appreciation would be given to the wife, and then the men usually went straight to bed.
At school, children would draw (kresliť), paint (maľovať), or make some other creative presents for their mothers. Teachers were sure to teach them poems (básničky) or songs (pesničky). Though one friend told me that the compulsive communist history of the day gives it a bad reputation (povesť), he said that he doesn't hold anything against the day. In fact, I could not find anybody who did not like the day. What kind of cold-hearted person would be against showing affection (prejaviť náklonnosť) to wives, mothers, grandmothers, friends, or girlfriends? However, now that it is not mandatory, several said, a lot of people forget to observe it. The communists doubtlessly appropriated Women's Day for its origin - it came into being in the second decade of the 20th century on the initiative of socialist parties and women's rights advocacy groups. In those early days it was the focal point for the suffrage movement and protests against discrimination and poor labour conditions.
The holiday established itself with the climactic success of a strike by workingwomen in Russia in 1917 during World War I that forced the Tsar out of power and won women the right to vote. This event, which began on March 8 according to the Gregorian calendar, cemented celebrations to that date.
Today most people do not think of the day as a political or feminist event and, like my friend mentioned above, tend not to associate it with ideology (ideológia) or politics (politika). But the spirit of the day has not been forgotten. One poster up around town reads sarcastically, "...[the holiday] even follows the times - for carnations now stand in more exotic flowers or luxurious sweets" ("...ba dokonca kráča s dobou - karafiáty vystriedali exotickejšie druhy kvetov či luxusné sladkosti"). The poster is that of three anarchist and feminist groups who held lectures and a happening on SNP square to encourage engagement with the issues of gender, sexism, and patriarchy. Their take on the holiday may not be so out of march with the times, as trafficking in women is becoming a growing issue in the region and parliamentary parties recently discussed quotas for female participation in the government. But in general, it seems, womankind's victories on this day were earned long ago and now they reap the benefit in flowers.
By ERIC SMILLIE,
The Slovak Spectator
