One of the things I enjoy about the Ramadan season is having the chance to head into the old part of the city to explore the Ramadan festival that is always held in the hippodrome. Last night I got my chance to experience the atmosphere. The reason I actually like Sultanahmet this time of year is that it is much more focused on Turks then it is on visitors. There is a more friendly, town fair type of feeling to the whole area. Yes there are plenty of tourists in the area still, but the whole set up is for residents. A way to celebrate the holy month and enjoy the breaking of the fast at sunset. Happily for those of us not fasting we arrived in Sultanahmet just minutes before the mosque call signaled that it was time to eat. We didn't have to wait! Instead we could go straight to a gozleme stand and enjoy our first warm treat of the night. Tucked up on the grass happily eating we were free to imagine that we were no different from any others sitting on the green space of the hippodrome - to imagine that for once, we were just one more resident of Istanbul enjoying what the city has to offer.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Iftar in Sultanahmet
One of the things I enjoy about the Ramadan season is having the chance to head into the old part of the city to explore the Ramadan festival that is always held in the hippodrome. Last night I got my chance to experience the atmosphere. The reason I actually like Sultanahmet this time of year is that it is much more focused on Turks then it is on visitors. There is a more friendly, town fair type of feeling to the whole area. Yes there are plenty of tourists in the area still, but the whole set up is for residents. A way to celebrate the holy month and enjoy the breaking of the fast at sunset. Happily for those of us not fasting we arrived in Sultanahmet just minutes before the mosque call signaled that it was time to eat. We didn't have to wait! Instead we could go straight to a gozleme stand and enjoy our first warm treat of the night. Tucked up on the grass happily eating we were free to imagine that we were no different from any others sitting on the green space of the hippodrome - to imagine that for once, we were just one more resident of Istanbul enjoying what the city has to offer.
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I've only just heard that it's Ramadan here in Azerbaijan as well. You may say, "Duh!" but I had heard nothing about fasting at all. Last night I heard that only two out of twelve teacher aides in the Early Learning Centre were fasting and both of them had given it away after some days. Only one of them wears a hijab.
It's hard to tell how central Islam is in Azeri society. It could be largely a matter of heritage and identity, like the Judeo/Christian heritage is in the west.
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