The main features of the character of the Uzbek family is hospitality and traditionally respectful respect for elders. Uzbeks usually live in large families consisting of several generations, so preference is given to large houses on the ground. A significant place in everyday life, as an element of hospitality, is a tea ceremony. Moreover, brewing tea and pouring it to guests is the exclusive prerogative of the owner. It is customary to always accept invitations for lunch or dinner and come on time. When going to visit, it is advisable to bring Souvenirs or sweets for the children of the owner. For hand shake hands usually only with men. With women and persons sitting in the distance, greet, putting his right hand to his heart and accompanying this gesture with a slight inclination of the head. During the handshake is traditionally interested in health, the state of Affairs at work and at home. At the entrance to the living room shoes are removed. It is necessary to take the place indicated by the owner. Moreover, the farther it is from the entrance, the more honorable it is.

The rites of the Uzbek people evolved over the centuries as a result of a complex process of merging the cultural skills and traditions of all tribes and nationalities that participated in the ethnogenesis of the Uzbeks. They are very original, bright and diverse. A large number of ceremonies accompany family life and are associated with the birth and upbringing of the child and weddings. A special role is played by rituals associated with the birth and upbringing of children (beshik-tuyi, khatna-kilish), marriage (Fatiha-TUI, wedding).

Traditional forms of social relations in Uzbekistan include, first of all, the mahalla — the neighboring community, associations of men «Jura», shop associations of craftsmen. The Uzbek mahalla has a thousand-year history and is the center of family and religious ceremonies and holidays. Here carefully preserved and transmitted from generation to generation rituals of their conduct. Preserved and the ancient custom of mutual aid — hashar. By the method of khashar help families to build a house, improving their district, street, town. In sovereign Uzbekistan, the mahalla became the guardian of the traditions of culture and morality of the Uzbek people, recognized by law as a mechanism of self-government of citizens.

FOLKLORE, FOLK TRADITION

The list of intangible masterpieces of the world cultural heritage of UNESCO included the cultural heritage of Boysun region of Surkhandarya region of Uzbekistan and Uzbek «shashmak» — a cycle consisting of several classical musical works.

Within the framework of the project «Preservation of cultural heritage of Boysun for the future generation of the country» a scientific expedition, the festival «Boysun bahori» was organized, a regional conference was held in Boysun. Published scientific books and multimedia disks: «the Art of Boysun» and «the art of Music of Boysun». A Museum and centre for national arts and crafts in Boysun. When the administration established the center to develop cultural tourism, in the culture of Boysun Folklore Academy is open and is provided with modern equipment.

In the framework of the project «Conservation and development «with Shashmakom» and transfer it to future generations» was published in the book «Customs of Shashmakom and modernity», «Fahriddin Sodikov», «Tashkent makoms and Ferghana», «Khorezm maqoms», prepared for printing the book of Yunus Rajabiy «Shashmakom» prepared audio CDs, video films «Shashmakom».

MUSIC

The music of Uzbekistan is similar to the music of the Middle East. It is characterized by complex rhythms that generate a rich melodic sound. Music is an individual nuance and a creative variety, although rhythms generally follow the structures of the verse. Many of the most popular Uzbek instruments have strings like rubab or dutar.

Tools like these are also popular in some other parts of Central Asia, Transcaucasia and the Middle East. The ancient tradition of singing minstrels, or bards, was an important part of early musical (and literary) development.

Uzbek folk music is characterized by the diversity of themes and genres. Songs and instrumental pieces in accordance with their functions and forms of existence can be divided into two groups: performed at a certain time and under certain circumstances and performed at any time. The first group includes songs related to rituals, labor processes, various ceremonies, theatrical performances, games.

Uzbek people are popular for their songs. Koshuk is a domestic song of a couplet structure with a melody of a small range covering one or two stanzas of the poetic text. A number of common traits with kosuka have lapar and Yala — the song also couplet structure. The dancing character of a melody of this genre provides their performance in support of comic dances.

Lapar is a song-dialogue. In Khorezm called songs performed by one singer. In some areas the term — lapar is applied to the wedding song «Ulan» (performed as a dialogue between men and women).

The genre of Yalla includes two types of songs: a melody of a narrow range, and singing — solo at the same time with dance. Poetic texts for songs are folk and professional poems of poets of the East.

The most developed samples of ashula are essentially professional music genre of oral tradition. A special place in the Uzbek musical heritage occupy the epics — the epic of satanella-heroic content. Also «makoms» — are the basic classical Fund of professional music of oral tradition.

CLOTHES

The peculiarity of the clothes of local peoples has long been determined by climatic, living conditions and tribal traditions. In the 19th century clothing (gowns, dresses, shirts) continued to keep the features of archaism: wide, long, single cut, it freely flows down, hiding the shape of human body. Clothes differed by similarity: winter and summer, men, women and children, they were close by shape and design.

The traditional national men’s suit consists of a warm quilted robe — chapan, tied with a scarf or scarves, a headdress of a skullcap, as well as boots made of thin leather. Men wore shirts of straight design, inner and outer robes. The robe could be light or warm, quilted on cotton wool. On the sides of the robe there were cuts for convenience of walking and sitting on the floor. Robe — chapan is usually tied with scarf or scarves.

Festive national costume differs from everyday by the beauty and richness of used fabrics, embroideries, etc.

Women’s national costume consists of a robe, a functional dress of simple cut of Khan-Atlas, and wide trousers, narrowed at the bottom. The woman’s headdress consisted of three main elements: a cap, a scarf and a turban. Festive women’s suit is different from the everyday quality and beauty of the fabrics from which it is performed. Children’s clothes repeated the shapes of adults ‘ clothes. In addition to common lines, clothes of each district or tribe had uniqueness expressed in fabric, shape, etc.

One of the most popular and widespread types of national applied art of Uzbekistan has always been a skullcap — hard or soft hat on the lining. Skullcap has become an integral part of the Uzbek national costume, entered the life and traditions of the Uzbek people. The most common forms of Uzbek skullcaps are tetrahedral, slightly conical. Skullcaps were made of two or more layers of fabric, quilted and reinforced with silk or cotton thread. The finished skullcap was embroidered with silk thread, gold or silver thread. The art of embroidery of skullcaps has long been owned mainly by women. The most common motifs decorating skullcaps include a floral motif, almond-shaped motif «Bodom» — a symbol of life and fertility. Common ornament headwear is the «Ilon izi» (trail snakes) performing the role of a talisman.

Skullcaps differ by region in form, ornament, signs of artistic symbolism. The creation of a certain type of skullcaps in a particular region was influenced not only by natural conditions, but also by the historically established artistic traditions and the overall level of development of art and culture. For example, if in Surkhandarya and Kashkadarya (especially in Baisun) round, cone-shaped skullcaps were embroidered with bright contrasting silk threads, in Bukhara they were mostly decorated with gold embroidery. The earliest in origin skullcaps are made in the cities of the Fergana valley: Chust, Margilan, Kokand and Andijan. Especially different Shakhrisabskiy «Gilam Duppi» solid saliva in the technique of «Iroki». In Tashkent, most of the skullcaps for women were embroidered in the technique of continuous cross-stitching «Iroki», which was dominated by floral motifs on a white embroidered background. To the names of these skullcaps is added the name of the city where they were created: «Chust Duppi», «Kukon Duppi», «shakhrikhon Duppi», «Margilan Duppi», «Gilam (shahrisyabz) Duppi», etc. Local features were sometimes expressed so much that it was determined by the headdress belonging to a person to a particular area.

NATIONAL CUISINE

Uzbek cuisine is the most diverse in the East. Some of the recipes of Uzbek dishes have a long history. Each dish has its own traditional rituals and cooking methods. There are about 1000 different recipes of dishes, drinks and confectionery.

Pilaf is the most famous dish of Uzbekistan. It is considered an ordinary and at the same time festive dish. Without it, not a single wedding, party and birthday. The main component of pilaf is rice, meat, carrots, onions, etc.

One of the famous Uzbek snacks is «Kazi» prepared from horse meat.

Bread is sacred by Uzbek people. According to tradition, when someone leaves home for a long time, he must bite off a small piece of cake, which is preserved until the person returns and eats it. The tradition of wearing bread baskets on the head is also an example of high respect for bread. For many centuries, bakers bake cakes in a tandoor (clay oven), resulting in a delicious and crispy bread. There are two types of cakes — ordinary (Obi-non) and festive (patyr). The usual flat cake is kneaded on water, covered with a sedan. Patyr is prepared from puff pastry with the addition of lamb fat.

Shish kebab and somsa (national puff pastry pies baked in tandoor) is a very famous dish of Uzbek cuisine.

Soups occupy an important place in the national cuisine of Uzbekistan. These dishes are rich in vegetables such as carrots, beets, as well as onions and herbs. The most popular soups are mastava and shurpa.

Halva, the world-famous traditional Oriental delicacy, is made from wheat flour, sugar with nuts or sedan. There are about 50 different types of halva in Uzbekistan.

In addition, Uzbekistan is famous for its delicious juices made from fruits, grapes, melons and watermelons. There is also a large variety of dried fruits, nuts and almonds.

If You visit Uzbekistan, be sure to try the national cuisine, and ask the hosts recipe you liked dishes.

NATIONAL UZBEK DANCE: TYPES AND SCHOOLS OF UZBEK DANCE

National Uzbek dance is extremely expressive. It represents all the beauty of the Uzbek nation. The main differences between Uzbek dance and other dances of the peoples of the East – is, firstly, the emphasis on complex and expressive hand movements, and secondly – a rich facial expressions. There are two types of Uzbek dance — traditional classical dance and folk (folk) dance.

Classical traditional Uzbek dance is an art that is cultivated in special dance schools and then demonstrated on the big stage. There are three schools of Uzbek dance: Fergana, Bukhara and Khorezm. Dances of Fergana group are distinguished by softness, smoothness and expressiveness of movements, easy sliding step, original movements on a place and on a circle. Bukhara dance is also distinguished by sharpness of movements, thrown back shoulders and a very beautiful gold-embroidered suit. The original and unique motion feature of the Khorezm style.

Almost all regions are represented in the folk Uzbek dance, there is an extraordinary diversity. These dances come to life on all family, village, city holidays. These dances are passed from generation to generation, they preserve the old dance traditions, as well as real or outgoing life.

FINE ART

Folk art, handed down from generation to generation, is flourishing today in Uzbekistan. Craftsmen apply the ancient skills of the type of decorative painting wall, carving on wood and ganch, embroidery. In the Ferghana valley, artisans use traditional, ancient techniques to weave silk into a brightly multicolored, geometric image called Khan Atlas(«king of atlases») and produce bright blue and green ceramics using local red clay and natural pigments.

The development of national painting began many centuries ago. In XVI–XVII centuries in Bukhara and some other urban centers has achieved considerable success in the art of the manuscript and bookbinding. The decorating of manuscript included refined calligraphy, performance by water paints and thin ornaments on fields. In Samarkand and especially Bukhara, the Central Asian school of miniature reached its peak.

It developed several styles. One of them, connected with the traditions of Kamoliddin Behzod (the great artist of the middle ages, the founder of one of the directions of Oriental miniatures), is characterized by the refinement of writing and architectural backgrounds.

THE FACE OF MODERN FOLK ART

Folk art is the most vivid and original layer of culture of Uzbekistan, rooted in the distant past.

It embodies the customs and beliefs of the population of Uzbekistan, as well as closely intertwined various arts: music, poetry, dance, theater, circus, architecture and fine arts. To this day, folklore in its various forms and genres is carefully preserved and developed thanks to the support of the state and the efforts of specialists in various fields. Since Antiquity and the middle Ages, folk art has been a carrier of the way of thinking and a reflection of spiritual culture, work and life of various ethnic groups that inhabited the territory of modern Uzbekistan. The development of folk art in various historical periods is evidenced by the monuments of material culture, the works of historians and encyclopedic scholars of the Central Asian region and other countries. Oral folk art, as well as the continuity of the national school «Usto-shogird» («master-student»), where from generation to generation masters passed their professional secrets to students, working individually or United in shop organizations of various types.

Preservation of the continuity of national schools and the introduction of new ideas, methods and technologies; fusion of traditional and innovative; constant and deep interest in the historical heritage in combination with modern forms of existence, which have their own characteristics in the regions and regions of Uzbekistan; active promotion — this is the face of modern folk art of Uzbekistan.