This holiday is also known as the Feast of Sacrifice. This is a very important Islamic holiday which celebrates willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his first-born son Ishmael. The sacrifice was not completed as God intervened and had Abraham sacrifice a ram instead. To celebrate people usually a set of new clothes, dress up and visit family and friends and sacrifice an animal.
The animal depends on the weath of the family. Most often it is a goat, sheep or cow. The family keeps a third of the meat, gives a third to family and friends and gives a third the poor. In the country people may do it themselves their yards, but the government sets up sites of trained butchers in many neighborhoods.
This year we celebrated more traditionally than we have for several years. Normally since it’s a long weekend Bülent and I usually travel. This year it was 6 days. We did go to Marmaris, but so did most of the family. So while we enjoyed the sunshine and nature we also celebrated Bayram. In the U.S. often there are celebratory dinners, but here it is ususlly brunches and lunches.
The family got together several times, aunts, uncles and cousins for brunches and luncheons. It was a nice and casual way to visit. Since it was happening often I was able to excuse myself when the level of Turkish became too high, rather to sit there bored. Also the older generation entertained each other. This allowed Bülent and I to have more private time than we might have if we just went down with his parents.
We had a lovely time and are our way back to Ankara today. To the real world for a couple of days!
