This is Part 1 of 3 about the Feast of the Sacrifice.
When we arrived here this summer, it was the second full day of Kurban Bayramı, which in English is the 'Feast of the Sacrifice'. It is also known as Eid el-Adha and is one of the most important religious holidays in Turkey and also a 4-5 day public holiday. As one of the most important events in the Islamic calendar, Kurban Bayramı is a bit like how Christmas is celebrated (rightly or wrongly) in many Western countries.
The holiday commemorates the account in the Qu'ran of İbrahim (Abraham)'s willingness to sacrifice his son and God's provision at the last moment of an animal instead. It parallels the Biblical account of Abraham being prepared to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Moriah and God providing a ram instead.
People often attend special prayers at the mosque on the first day of Kurban Bayramı. Then a family, if they can afford it, will often have a sheep, goat or a cow/bull sacrificed. It was estimated that over 3.65 million animals (including 2.8 million sheep and goats) would be sacrificed this year for Kurban Bayramı. As far as I understand it, the sacrifice used to be done by a butcher or head of the family in the street or the garden but now there are special places designated for the sacrifices, where there should be a mobile slaughterhouse and trained butchers to carry out the sacrifice. And the sacrifice places are usually listed on the Internet.
Some of the meat is used for a feast and family and friends will usually visit each other over the holiday. The tradition is that the meat is divided into three: one third is kept for the family, one third is given to family and friends and the remaining third is given to the poor. Alternatively instead of sacrificing an animal, money is sometimes donated to charity.
Because we arrived on the second full day, we had missed the first day when sacrifices are usually done. But what we did see was outside every butchers shop were big mincing machines on a table on the front, usually with tubs of spices alongside, and a sign saying "sucuk doldurulur". This translates as 'sucuk is made here'. Sucuk is a yummy, spicy kind of sausage found here, a bit like chorizo but obviously not made from pork but usually beef and usually with spices such as garlic, salt, pepper and cumin. The meat is ground several times and mixed with the spices before being put into sausage casings and left to dry. Slices of sucuk are often fried (sometimes with eggs) and eaten as part of a Turkish breakfast or can be grilled on a BBQ, added as a filling to toasties or savoury pastries or added into bean stew. When we're cooking at home, we sometimes make pasta carbonara with sucuk as a bacon substitute (it's all about the Turkish fusion cooking!) but I haven't dared admit that to any Turk yet, they would probably be horrified!
The Feast this year has sparked a few different thoughts related to it. I'll share a couple of those in the blog posts following this.
