Celebrating in Istanbul - Come as you are!

Well, tomorrow we will celebrate the Day of Ashura, i.e. according to the Islamic calender the 10th day of the month of Muharram. Commemorated as the 'day of mourning', it marks the occasion, when Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, miserably died in a battle carried out in 6th century's Kerbala, Iraq – a consequence of the argued question of leadership succession within the Islamic community.* With his death the split between Sunni and Shia Muslims was eventually set.

Since my neighborhood majorly belongs to the Alevi, a minority community grown out of the Shia line of Islam in Turkey particularly, I was remembered of the tradition today on several occasions and hence, I felt the wish to be part of it.

Indeed, probably every mum in my neighborhood had just done the same this evening: watering some grains and legumes, which tomorrow will be made into loads of Ashure dessert, a kind of sweet soup, or pudding. They will distribute among relatives, friends and neighbors, and they will carry it to the 'cem evi' , the spiritual assembly house for Alevi people, as a gesture of generosity.

Who is around takes part in the assembly house's ceremony – Alevi or not, Shia or not, Muslim or Christian … makes no difference. Everyone is welcome. And be sure it won't take long and everyone will talk and sing and dance, a happy mass of children and elderly together.

Well, yeah! If you ask me, just such an event already describes the way people here celebrate at it's best. Grab some people and go! And since people in Turkey are generally always up to something, good mood is guaranteed anyway. Sure, sometimes there is a reason, but sometimes there is not. There might have been a plan about where and when to do what, but in the end everything comes as it comes.

Strict schedules, official invitations or the like are really kind of uncommon. Much more, it will be the way that you meet someone buying a beer in the shop around the corner, you start talking and in the end you walk out with a beer, too, and find a place at the sea side to sit down. And since also this mega-city turns out to be a kind of village in the end, you will probably come across some more people on the way, which will be happy to join. Then someone might remember an old friend supposed to live close by, he will call him and – come as you are – give him 10 minutes and he will be there, too. So, suddenly you are 10 people and there's a party going on.

“Takilmak” – i.e. something like “getting caught by s.o./s.th.” - this way of hanging out together is called in Turkish. Well, it just happens!

By the way, there is also a legend of how the recipe for Ashure Pudding came into being: Hence, it was after the waters of the big Flood subsided and Noah's Arch stuck on the Mount of Agri (in today's Turkey) the people on the boat wanted to celebrate to thank God for his mercy. But since the the food stores on board were completely finished, they collected every small corn and fruit piece they could barely find somewhere on the floors and in the last corners: some wheat, rice, beans, chick peas, dried fruits, and nuts – 15 different ingredients all in all. Nowadays the ingredients vary according to the harvest of the country, availability, and preference. And in some regions also a piece of meat from the Kurban Bayram, The Fest of Sacrifice is kept for a month and and then thrown into.


*Following the death of the Prophet Muhammad, the question of who was to take over the leadership of the Muslim nation was answered differently by two political fractions: Whereas the one side – which came to be known as the Shia Community – argued that leadership should have passed directly to the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law, Ali, the other – Sunni – side argued that the new leader should be elected from among those capable of the job. (This is also, what was done then …)