Sacrifices

Last week was Kurban Bayramı (Eid al-Adha), the sacrifice festival in the Muslim world.  The festival sounds a bit gruesome, and it did use to be characterized by lots of sheep appearing in people’s gardens in the weeks before the festival to be replaced by a lot of bloody carcasses as the butchers worked their way round on the first morning of the holiday.  Luckily this happens a lot less now; partly maybe because the price of an animal is so high that many people can no longer afford it, but also because there are now designated areas for the slaughter, as well as less hands-on ways of doing it.  You can now, for example, send a text message to the Red Crescent (like the Red Cross), who will deduct the money from your account, have an animal ‘done’ at the abattoir in your name, distribute most of the meat and send you a ‘taster’!

This is the point of the sacrifice – which by the way commemorates Abraham’s readiness to obey God by sacrificing his son İsmail - not to have a big barbecue with your friends, but to give the meat away.  Officially you can consume up to a third of the animal, a third can be given to family and friends but at least a third must be given to those in need.  This year the Red Crescent sent the meat to the earthquake victims in Van.

This festival is also the time that Muslims make the pilgrimage to Mecca.  The ‘duties’ they perform there, which might seem a bit strange if you have heard any of them (throwing stones is one of them) also represent the story of Abraham’s obedience to God.  The stone throwing, for example, recalls how he chased away the devil who was trying to tempt him to disobey.

For us, it is a time to visit family and friends.  Everyone gets dressed up and the kids are given sweets and money.  We always have breakfast with Cem’s mum (after he and the boys have been to the mosque), and visit some of this relatives.  That’s about the extent of our celebration – by the evening we were in the bar at the hotel, having some drinks with some friends!

Murat fishing

 On the second day we went out on the boat for the afternoon.  The weather was lovely.  The holiday lasts for four days, and the kids were off school until the Thursday, but two days was enough for me.  I am not good at sitting around all day drinking tea and gossiping…even after all this time in Turkey!

Emre fishing