TQOMH (old)

2 guards in charge of looking at the escalator especially after the death of 2 people after getting their winter coats stuck to the escalator in one of the biggest shopping mall in istanbul..

(one of the victims happened to be halil's student..Al fatihah)

A view of the crowd in the shapping complex..it was suffocating!

Anne.. i am hungry!! Where is my lunch???

Baddin eating his Mc D.. and..if u notice on the tray.. lahmacun..one type of thin crusty turkish pizza.. yum yum!!

The 3 cute people in my life..Makan jangan tak makan!! :0)

2 Colors skin..One Love :0) Picture snapped by Hatice

Anne n Baba dia apa lagi... posing jangan tak posing

Yup.. a simple family outing we had last weekend.a simple lunch coz i decided that i was lazy to cook hehehehe...

We dont celebrate Christmas here in turkey..there is no public holiday for christmas here.. the reason would be..around 98 percent of the population are muslims. The rest r either christians, jews or others..

But one interesting culture i observe here is the New Year.. For the new year, it is as if.. they celebrate Christmas and thanksgiving on that day.. Why do i say that? on the new year's eve.. people will exchange gifts...have santa clause somewhere...decorate the pine tree (christmas tree)..and for dinner...they have turkey...I have no idea where this mixture of culture derive from.. but the general population does that...

We dont do that of course.. The Zaim family, every year, we do have the family dinner..everyone will be at baba's..The kids will get small gifts..something symbolic..we dont have christmas tree.. we dont have santa definitely.. and as for dinner....we rarely have turkey on the table (halil disagrees with the culture)....only rarely we eat turkey on new year's eve..

What i simplY LOVE about the TüRKs are.. The Kurban Bayram.. Yup..the kurban Eid Celebration...U can feel the spirit of Kurban here.. Everywhere... many organizations are out in the open so that the people will give the money for kurban to their organization.. The BESt part of it all is... Many many people do give their hare for the qurban..at times.. when they can afford it.. even both the husband n wife give the kurban..Many many centers are opened at the kurban centers.. for those who decide not to give their money to organizations for the kurban, they can go to the kurban centers on the bayram day..buy the cow or the sheep of their choice, and pay for the person in charge at the center to cut the animal accordingly..

The kurban meat particularly organized by organizations (mostly private)..will the be distributed both locally and world wide.. asia..africa.. anywhere where the meat is most needed...

Halil told me that..usually on the kurban day.. normally it will rain.. Maybe it is because of the rahmat of the day.. and it is also Allah's way of washing the blood of the kurban ..Whatever it is.. what i am so happy about is.. U can feel the spirit of kurban bayram here.. people r not stingy and they usually try to be a part of those who pay the money for a kurban...

And this is the latest mode this year... u can even pay bit by bit the kurban price...(taksit = bayaran ansuran)

For example..let say the price of one part of kurban is 300YTL.. some organizations allow the people to pay the amount for 3 months.. meaning 100YTL for 3 months.. ..

This year, the weather is cold here in turkey.. bayram this year may have the possibility of snow..i dunno..

I am taking a break for a while.. will be back with a new entry on the bayram day...

From the bottom of our hearts..

Happy New Year...Salam Aidil Adha.. Hayırlı Bayram Kutlu Olsun

to all of you

With all our love.. All the way from istanbul

Maaf Zahir dan Batin

:o)

Thank You for hopping by...Hope to see u again the next time..

Labels: Turkish Culture

Just listen to the song... to live with someone but in love with someone else.. how sad is that? anyway..i just hope none of us will have to go thru that.. the song is sad indeed..i just love the tune of it..:0)....

Back to the topic... can u guess what the picture below is??

Yup.. that is *buğday*.. or wheat we call it in English.. *diş* means tooth.. so *diş buğday* means *wheat tooth*..It is a tradition in the türkish community to have this day for the baby after the sighting of the baby's first tooth.. The rule is.. whoever first sight the tooth will owe the baby a gift..and then diş buğday will be held among the family members to celebrate the event...why wheat? why not rice..from what Afife teyze told me.. in the olden days.. wheat was cheap.. it could be found everywhere which is understandable of course since bread is the staple food of türks...teeth and wheat..i think it represents the connection of the teeth n eating the solid food for the baby..Food will be served for diş buğday day and the one menu will be served as well... yup! the picture above suggest it already...already boiled wheat normally sprinkled with salt..It is also normal for a piece of gold to be put inside the wheat bowl so that the person who spoons the wheat onto his plate and find the gold in his or her wheat gets to keep the gold ...

True enough..we had one yesterday.. this time it was for the youngest baby in the family.. minik mustafa....We had cookies...cake... rice stuffed in vine leaves..and a few others (forgot to snap the photo).. and also we had a birthday cake for Kerim..the dad of the diş buğday child...(Doğum gunu kutlu olsun kerim!)..It was held at baba's with all the members of the family present.. Boiled wheat was there of course.. instead of eating it just plainly with salt.. halit n i had eaten it with rus salatası (a salad with mayonaise).. it was definitely better tasting!!...Let us feast out eyes on the photos.....and by the way..NO one GOT the Gold!! hehehehe