Though Christmas celebrations ended more than a month ago worldwide, and Christmas themes are off the season, in Osh oblast of Kyrgyz Republic recently there was an event “Santa-Klaus in Aravan”, informs Ferghana.Akipress.KG. This event was organized by municipal authorities and one of local NGOs with entertainment shows and prize competitions.

It seems that Santa-Klaus events are organized in accordance with the program of the Tourism State Committee, which was adopted after publications that the location of Santa-Klaus would be Kyrgyzstan since it is the geographic center of the world. I think that some people can make fun of this program of popularization of Santa-Klaus in Kyrgyzstan. Most adults know that he does not exist but accept him as the symbol of Christmas and that it came from folklore of Scandinavian people, but not from scientific research. It is just odd that the state agency grabs this kind of news for its serious development program.

In general the topic of Santa-Klaus can become more interesting since it can be seen as religious symbol of Christian holiday, especially if it is promoted in a country, where Islam is considered to be the traditional and the main religion. Without going deeply into religious discussions, I think that Kyrgyzstan could have used its unique location as the Earth center in other ways, perhaps in logistics, telecommunications, and in science.