Bayramınız Kutlu Olsun

İyi Bayramlar. Happy Bayram. Today is the first day of Kurban Bayramı (the Sacrifice Festival) which marks the end of Haj (Pilgrimage). There were a few goats tied up near the house on the way home last night and a few this morning but they've been dispatched by now (0930). We won't be doing the Sacrifice but I was quite impressed that my friend Servet could do it online for charity at a cost of 200 YTL (€124) . I wonder if we shall do a Kurban on the foundations of our new house (inşallah), which is also traditionally auspicious...

This was my favourite of the e-cards we had to mark the feast...




The iconography seems to be a direct lift from the Christian imagery of the Nativity but used here in an Islamic context. So I guess we have to read the child as Abraham's favourite son (Ishmael in the Moslem tradition and Isaac in the Judaeo-Christian tradition as I remember) that the prophet is asked to sacrifice to show he puts his love of the Lord before all things. The only promised child is spared and a suitable sacrifice is indicated, tangled in the burning bush. I guess that's the cute little lambs in this image. (Of course the Lord God does not spare his own son in the Christian tradition...)

The message reads "May your Bayram be Sacred" rather than the popular "May your Bayram be Happy" (as per the title here) and seems to be part of a trend (that happened in the Christian West too I think) of reminding us that holidays are really Holy Days.

Of course these holidays also mark a massive sacrifice of poultry all over the North and East of this country in order to prevent the spread of bird flu.