In world culture, lightning was conceived as the “link” between heaven and earth, embodying the divine will of heaven (lightning is the most important attribute of the gods: symbol of the power and greatness of the Brahmin, the ancient Greek Zeus, etc.). Among the Turkic peoples, the great Tengri ruled by thunder and lightning, punishing evil at his command. To the first spring thunder the Turks have a number of beliefs. Vegetable foods (wild onions and other plants) were not allowed to be eaten until the first thunder. It was believed that after the thunder the plants would grow faster and the cattle would give more milk if they fed on them. It used to be the custom of the Kazakhs to beat the buckets or the kerege of the yurt at the first thunder. Writing about this custom, Ch. Valikhanov associated this rite with the wish for abundant milk and offspring.
The first April lightning is called by Kazakhs Kyzyr qamshysy, which means “whip of Kyzyr”. Kyzyr is one of the names of the mythical figure Kydyr ata – the giver of abundance, luck and wealth in Turkic mythology. The house struck by lightning was considered worthy of Tengri’s wrath, and the person killed by lightning was considered “consecrated”; the survivor of the lightning strike was considered reborn, completely changed.
