International Women's Day

March 8 is International Women's Day. Conceived in the USA, this is a huge holiday in Russia and Belarus. Businesses will close, and even the never-stopping Russian-Language program at the Minsk State Linguistic University will take the day off.

Since March 8 falls on Monday, folks started celebrating the holiday early. We went to see the Military Band lead a program of traditional music and dance at the Minsk Tractor Factory on Thursday, and then we went to a classical extravaganza at the Opera House last night. Here are a couple of pictures I took with my phone at the Tractor Factory.

I was interested to discover that the show at the Opera House included only male performers. They put the orchestra up on the stage and soloists came out in front of the orchestra and sang arias about love to the women in the audience. The female opera stars got the night off, and maybe they hauled their husbands and boyfriends to the hall because the audience was a lot more gender-balanced than usual for shows here.

The performers pretty well brought down the house at the end of the show when first three, and then four tenors came out to sing together. The audience nearly went berserk with pleasure, and we managed to get them to sing more than they were prepared for. Even the unrehearsed stuff came off really well.

I am posting this entry on March 7. Readers outside the Russian-speaking world take note: If you are friendly with any Russian women, call them and wish them well in the spirit of Eighth of March. You'll be glad you did.(Cakes, flowers, cards, candies and all manner of attention are appropriate.)