As reported in the «Bashkirskaya entsiklopediya» («Bashkir Encyclopedia»), the holiday is a kind of meeting of spring. Since ancient times the ceremony was held in the «cuckoo month», in the period from the end of April to July: when the earth was freed from snow, covered with the first greenery and vociferous birds flew from warm countries. As ornithologists say, in clear windless weather the mysterious song of the cuckoo can be heard at a distance of up to two kilometers. Every year women, young people and children flocked to the lush greenery of glades and meadows, where the cuckoo's calling could be heard. Adult men did not participate in the holiday. The festivities in the fresh spring nature consisted of fun games, songs, dances, fortune-telling. On the days of the cuckoo's arrival wild edible plants appeared in the meadows: hogweed, sorrel, lop-sided onion – uskun, wild garlic – iyua, lungwort, primrose. Edible plants were collected with ritual songs.

An important part of the holiday was the tea party. For tea party people brought belish (baked pie made of unleavened dough with a variety of fillings), boortsog (baursak), bliny (pancakes), gubadia (closed round multi-layer pie), honey, chak-chak (deep-fried pieces of dough mixed with honey syrup), eremsek (red cottage cheese) and other food.Some of the gifts were brought to the cuckoo – she was treated to appease. It was necessary to put white products to the trees on which the cuckoos called. Children poured milk, katyk (fermented milk product) or curdled milk on the roots of trees and left chicken eggs there, and tied red ribbons on the branches.

Women prepared tea and food, young people played various folk games: «Ak tirek, kuk tirek» («White poplar, gray poplar»), «Kumer yozek» («Coal ring»), «Yesherem yaulyk» («Hiding the handkerchief»), «Os buken» («Three stumps»), «Ak kayin» («White birch»), «Balga bar» («Go get honey»), running competitions, jumping, tug-of-war between teams of girls and young women, performed dances, songs and takmaks (genre of Bashkir musical and poetic folklore). Competitions in running, jumping and belt wrestling were organized for children. They composed takmaks, danced. The boys, having made a bow and arrow, competed in accuracy. Women performed songs and dances dedicated to the cuckoo.

During the tea party elderly women told instructive stories, legends, fairy tales, beliefs associated with the cuckoo. The tea party ended with prayers, ritual songs. People made wishes and told fortunes, listening to the cuckoo's calling. The girls, hoping to marry a handsome guy, counted how many times the cuckoo would call. If she called for a long time and without stopping – for a beautiful, good guy, if not for a long time – for a bad one. The grandmothers also asked the cuckoo how long they had left to live. If she called for a long time, it meant that she promises many years. Referring to nature and birds, the women uttered good wishes with a request for peace, a rich harvest, abundance and prosperity.

In ancient times in the female dance «Kukushka» («Cuckoo») the motifs of worshipping the bird, cajoling it, fear of its «prophetic» calling were more clearly manifested.

At first Guzel performed the dance «Kukushka» in a colorful, spacious dress with ruffles, later the artist Natalia Stepanova developed a sketch of a new outfit. Because the cuckoo itself is gray-bluish in color the dress was sewn from blue silk, and the vest was made silver.

According to the artist, during the Great Patriotic war, when the men went to the front, the rite of «Kyakuk syae» («Cuckoo tea») found a second life. The women no longer told fortunes how many years they would live, but prayed that their husbands, sons and brothers would return alive and well.

The cuckoo's voice is melodious and pleasant, but people have always perceived its calling with caution, with anxiety. There was a popular belief: «If a cuckoo calls, sitting on the roof of a house – it's for the worse: trouble will come to the house. If a cuckoo arrives in the village – there will be a famine». According to scientists, the ritual holiday «Kyakuk syae» originates from pre-Islamic beliefs and dates back to pagan animal worship. The ancient cult of birds among the Bashkirs is associated with the belief in the ability of the souls of deceased people to turn into birds, scientists believe.

The compilation «Bashkirskie narodnye pesni, pesni-predaniya» («Bashkir folk songs, songs-legends») also contains the song «Kyakuk» («Cuckoo») with an interesting legend. However, its details – the absence of mythical characters, the ban under Sharia law – indicate that this legend belongs to a later time.

The song «Kekukkay» («Cuckoo») is also in the collection of Karim Diyarov, but its history is not directly related to the cult of the cuckoo. In it the cuckoo rather expresses the image of female loneliness.

Thus, in many legends of songs associated with the cuckoo there are dramatic plots, motifs of sadness and loneliness. However, the most popular on the Bashkir stage was the cheerful song kyska-kyuy (short tune) called «Kyakuk» («Haizar kyakuk»), which was first performed by the famous Bashkir singer, propagandist of folk songs, People's Artist of Russia and Bashkortostan Flyura Kildiyarova. Thanks to her many little-known songs became the property of the whole people.

In the first volume of the book «Bashkirskoe narodnoe tvorchestvo» («Bashkir folk art»), dedicated to ritual folklore, a variant of the modern holiday is given. All the main components of the ceremony are preserved, the only difference is that the chairman of the women's council acts as the leader-«yulbashsy». The holiday itself consists of modern sports competitions, games and an amateur concert. The holiday ends with the awarding of the winners.

In 2014 for the first time in Bashkortostan a two-day ethno-festival «Kyakuk syae» («Cuckoo tea») was organized. It took place in the Nurimanovsky district – in the tourist ski center «Pavlovsky Park». The folk rite has become an event tourism action. It was held by the Tourism Center of the Republic of Bashkortostan with the support of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Bashkortostan, the Union of Tourism Industry of the Republic of Bashkortostan, the House of Friendship of Peoples of the Republic of Bashkortostan, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bashkortostan and the administration of the Nurimanovsky district. The initiator and creator of the ethno-holiday was the director of Tourism Center of the Republic of Bashkortostan Natalia Nikolskaya.

At the ethno-festival at the entrance to the park guests were greeted by a huge strict cuckoo in a national costume.

Three republican historical and cultural centers took part in the holiday – «Temyasovo» from the village of Temyasovo of the Baimaksky district, «Saitbaba» from the village of Saitbaba of the Gafuriysky district and «Saraily» named after Kanzafar-bey from the village of Saraily of Blagovarsky district. All day long the participants of the holiday in bright national costumes performed, treated and created a mood. Near the yurt the grandmother was weaving keyez (patterned felt carpet) on a loom. Residents of the Gafuriysky district set the table in their yurt and treated all comers. Amateur artists of each historical and cultural center showed their own version of the folk rite «Kyakuk syae» («Cuckoo tea») in the form of a theatrical concert – with games, songs and dances. Souvenirs with the symbols of the cuckoo holiday were created – small magnets, mugs, photo frames, T-shirts.

Teas from various herbal collections, honey, national dishes – kumis, talkan (flour from fried barley or wheat used for the preparation of drinks, dishes and cereals), eremsek, chak-chak, kazylyk (horse meat sausage) could be tasted at exhibitions-fairs. The phytocenter of herbalist Mikhail Gordeyev offered different varieties of tea, especially recommending «cuckoo tea», which has a powerful general healing effect and has a good effect on human reproductive function.

The culmination of the holiday was a colorful «Cuckoo carnival». Following the two-meter cuckoo, all the participants of the festival in national costumes marched through the park towards the stage.

In the evening the results of the competitions for the best recipe of Bashkir tea and the best cuckoo costume were summed up. All participants were dressed in hand-sewn cuckoo costumes. The festival ended with a concert of the popular band «Suraman» and a folk disco in the open air. The soloist of the group Azat Bikchurin showed on stage how in ancient times the kurai instrument was made from the stem of an umbelliferous plant. The modern interpretation of the cuckoo dance was performed by the «S-ART» dance school (head – Ivan Buksha).

However, at the ethno-festival the cuckoo songs in the Pavlovsky forest were not heard either during the day or in the evening. But the participants of the festival started a tradition: in the final they depicted a cuckoo, calling ten times in chorus.

The ethno-festival «Kyakuk syae» is held annually, at first the venue was «Pavlovsky Park», later the ancient rite passed to other areas. The event combines a cheerful and noisy «Cuckoo carnival», a souvenir exhibition-fair, a seminar of herbalist Gordeyev «Cuckoo tea – recipe and women's health», the work of a phytobar and a tasting of Bashkir tea, contests «Best recipe for Bashkir tea», «Best tea ceremony», «Best cuckoo dance», «Best cuckoo song», «Best cuckoo costume», «Best cuckoo totem», «Best cuckoo cereal», «Best cuckoo souvenir», a concert of folklore groups, an ethno-disco.