Thanksgiving, a l'azerbaidjanaise

I've received a few emails and messages wondering how my Thanksgiving was spent, so I figured I would type up a quick post to keep everyone updated.

Last week, the embassy had a party for us at an employee's house. All the volunteers went to Baku with their own homemade dishes for our turkey feast! After the delicious meal, there was a talent show... where I deftly handled the nose-flute. And by deftly handled, I mean "was unable to play." That is a difficult instrument to play!

On real Thanksgiving, which was Thursday as you well know, the Barda volunteers went to Lexi's house where we ate stuffing, mashed potatoes, spinach and other fine Thanksgiving treats. But Thanksgiving doesn't end there. In fact, in Muslim countries "Qurban bayrami" or Sacrifice Holiday takes place for about a week at the end of November. This Sacrifice Holiday commemorates Abraham's sacrifice to God from the Old Testament (a shared story among Jews, Muslims and Christains by the way). People remember the sacrifice by slaughtering sheep or cows and giving the meat to poorer family. My counterpart is fortunate enough to have enough money to buy meat, so she and her husband bought a sheep and slaughtered it.

Of course they waited for me to come over before they did the deed. A year ago this would have horrified me, but since I pass five butcher shops on my way to school every morning, witnessing the slaughter was hardly shocking. After they cut up the sheep into little parts, they gave portions to various poorer people in the neighborhood. It was really nice to watch the generosity and see how similar our traditions are despite being so far away from one another.

Of course not all traditions can or even should be loved by a foreigner. For the next morning, we ate the head of the sheep for breakfast! BARF- eating animal heads is one tradition I have never liked but always seem to get stuck doing! Happy Qurban Bayrami!