happy holidays

This weekend is the beginning of the holiday season for many in the States. This year, the Muslim calendar coincides nicely with my more familiar holidays. The Kurban Bayramı (literally: sacrifice holiday) begins on Friday; today is Thanksgiving! As a vegetarian, neither holiday really appeals to me (based purely on the opinion that both are rather meat-based). I appreciate and enjoy the meaning behind both, and I'm quite pleased to have Thanksgiving day included in the bayram weekend.

We don't have any plans. I might try to go find some pumpkin pie. As I'm not much of a cook, I have no desire to cook a big meal. We'll probably make a small dinner and have some ice cream. Since Kaan has never experienced Thanksgiving, I'll try to explain it to him. We'll have to see how successful that is! I remember writing a short paragraph about Thanksgiving when I was here in 2006. I'm almost certain it was completely grammatically incorrect, but I was still a young Turkish speaker at the time. Hopefully now I'll be able to explain the holiday in terms understandable!

As for the Kurban Bayram, we have few plans to speak of. We have considered going to the mosque on Friday morning for some special bayram prayers. I'll hopefully be able to go; apparently the neighborhood mosques don't have places for women, so we might have to go to an older, farther away mosque. We'll see!

Traditionally, the Kurban Bayramı is the celebration of the end of Hajj (the journey to Mecca required for all Muslims). It has a hint of new beginnings. Although not quite the end of the Islamic calendar, it is situated in the last month of the year. I consider the Kurban Bayramı to be a chance for new beginnings. I believe this is related to the end of Hajj; one who has completed Hajj is considered to be reborn without sin. Even if one hasn't completed Hajj, Kurban Bayramı is still an opportunity to begin again. For me, it also holds a spirit similar to our Thanksgiving. It is normal for many Muslim communities to hold feasts and share their food with friends, family, neighbors, and even strangers. It is important to make sure even the poorest families have food; sharing one's meal with the poor and hungry is considered a good deed.

I feel that this is a similar hope during Thanksgiving. At least in my community, we try to give extra food to the poor and hungry. It's important to share what we can. As many already know, Thanksgiving is a holiday that we use to commemorate the gift the Native Americans gave to the Pilgrims in the first few years of colonization. While that gift was admittedly poorly repaid (hi, massacres and reservations), we still celebrate the kindness of the Natives as the reason our early settlers survived. It's only fair that we today support the survival of the poorest and richest alike. Of course, Thanksgiving is also the beginning of the winter holiday weight gain!

I apologize if this post seems a little disjointed; the more time I spend here, the poorer my English becomes. My main purpose in writing this (aside from not falling into the trap of dead blogs) is to clarify one point: despite all of our cultural, religious, political, and personal differences, the traditions of being thankful and of sharing with others are common. Even being in a city that's 6000 miles from home and many degrees different from my own, I'm able to find the undercurrent of similarities. Celebrating Thanksgiving won't be the same, but it will be hard to ignore the presence of the sharing spirit.

In the Thanksgiving tradition, I'm thankful for being given the opportunity to be here, in Turkey (that means you, DU Study Abroad!). I'm thankful for my family, who have been supporting me through not only this trip but for all of my life. I'm thankful for Kaan, who's been an inspiration and blessing for me. I'm especially thankful for my friends like Jessi and Eleanor, who have been putting up with me throughout the semester. I'm thankful for my friends back home and abroad, all of my Turkish friends (hi, Evrim!) and American friends alike. I'm thankful for all of the hard times I have and will experience, because without those hard times, the good times just aren't as nice.

Please, everyone, have a safe, blessed holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving (eat your TOFUrkeys please), eid mubarak, bayramlariniz kutlu olsun.

Turkish words for this entry:
bayram (bye-RAM) holiday
Şükran bayramı (shoe-KRAN bye-RAM-uh) literally: thanks holiday
kutlamak (koot-lah-mahk) to celebrate
paylaşmak (pie-lahsh-mahk) to share
'Bayram kutlu olsun!' (bye-RAM koot-LOO OL-son) 'May the holiday be blessed.' (a common salutation during any holiday)