Sixty-second birthday declared a holiday
A new holiday has appeared on the calendar of Turkmenistan: citizens' 62nd birthdays.
All Turkmen citizens will get a three-day holiday when they turn 62 and a small government stipend, in honour of the Muslim prophet Muhammad’s age when he died, the president announced on the day before reaching the golden age himself.
Some 15,000 people, including the country’s leadership and foreign diplomats, gathered for a lamb sacrifice in President Saparmurat Niyazov’s village, Kipchak, for his birthday, state television reported.
The whole Central Asian nation was given a day off.
