This weekend was FULL of cultural
experiences. I can't begin to tell you how much fun I had!
The whole city is off of school and
work for at least four days, but some have it off for longer for the
Holiday Called “Eid” in Arabic, or Jezhin Qurban in the language
of the locals for where I am at. This means “Feast of the
Sacrifice.” Going into this holiday, I thought that it was their
time to sacrifice a sheep, goat, or cow that would be the main
sacrifice for their sins for the year. But, Apparently this is not
correct.
The first day of the Holiday was on
Friday. My best friend and her sister invited us
over to their house for the early morning breakfast that is
traditional for every family take part in on the first morning of
this holiday. When I woke up to go to their house, it felt like a
typical holiday morning. The weather was cool, but the sun was
shining and when we got the house of our friends, it smelled of
delicious food. All the neighbors were out, walking back from the
local “Mzq,” and very happy that it was a holiday. I spent the
morning with my friends eating rice, chicken, and a traditional
apricot soup (which is my favorite), and meeting my friends family
members.
The traditions of the holiday are to
eat and visit as many of your friends and family as you can in those
four days. While I was at their house, neighbors were
dropping by all morning to say hello and to get a piece of candy. This
is acceptable for everyone to do, even if you don't know your
neighbors, it is tradition to still go and visit. Someone from the
family must stay at home incase visitors come, but they take shifts
to go out and visit friends and family.
Saturday morning I went for a walk
with my roommate. We walked past an open garage with a family
standing outside around the garage door, and we saw blood and water
flowing into the street. We stopped and talked to the women in the family
for a few minutes and watched the men killing a cow in the garage. Of
course we were invited to stay, or to come back and to eat with them
and a whole bunch of other stuff in their language that I haven't
learned yet, but it is customary to be as welcoming and hospitable as
possible, even if we are complete strangers.
Sunday morning I was washing the
dishes and I could hear a banging on our front gate. I was told that
because we are foreigners we wouldn't get visits from people, so I
was confused as to why someone was at our house. When I went outside,
out neighborhood had lots of people in the streets, and a family
walking up and down the street banging on peoples doors to give them
meat from their sacrificed animal. I took the gift and invited the
young girl inside, but she said thankyou and kept
passing out meat to everyone else in the neighborhood.
I spent all afternoon with a friend
who has been helping me a little here and there with language, and I
like her family very much. I got to eat with them, drink tea, eat a
lot of kurdish candies and even help with the dishes which is not
something I usually get to help with no matter how much I insist. It
was quite the experience. Even though this family has a full kitchen
with cabinets, counters and a sink, we sat on the floor in what we
would call a mud room or laundry room in the states, and with a house
and large basins washed the dishes. I had a blast doing dishes this way.
After a little longer I went to
another friends house for about an hour and ate more nuts and visited
with her.This friend is one of the most devoted to the local beliefs of all my friends and
is hard to share with sometimes because she does not seem very
interested, but I still love her and enjoy learning from her about
their traditions and beliefs. She informed me that my assumptions of
this holiday were wrong. The holiday is for remembering Ibrihim and
his willingness to sacrifice his son, Ishmael out of obedience to
God. But then God provided an animal instead, so Ishmael (who was
fully aware of what was happening and who agreed without question to
be sacrificed) didn't have to die. (This is their version of the
story).
After this visit, I went to my
neighborhood and met a few neighbors for the first time visiting
them, speaking only their language. It was great to be able to
practice what I have been learning and to meet some of our neighbors
who probably already know everything I told them about what I do and
where I am from since they watch us constantly.
But overall, this holiday was a lot of
fun. By the end of the weekend, I was completely exhausted and needed
to sleep, but I had my language hours done for the week and really
enjoyed being immersed as much as possible into the culture.
Jezhan Pirozbeit everyone!!
