The silence of the goats

There is the one thing of which we can be certain. By this time next week, the clanking of bells that accompany the herds of goats and sheep – which now teem ribbon-like down the lanes and mountains paths of Turkey – will be dramatically reduced.

For Muslims it is customary for goats or sheep to be sacrificed in celebration of the Feast of the Sacrifice, or Kurban Bayramı as it is known in Turkey. But sometimes a ram or billy goat (it has to be a male) is not enough. For a big family, maybe a bull or occasionally even a camel can be ritually slaughtered. This will begin with “arife” (preparation) in Thursday afternoon and continue until Monday evening.

Certainly, the price of animals shoots up at this time of the year and the food industry, particularly supermarkets, leap on the “Bayram Bandwagon,” tempting their customers to buy sweets, chocolates and special “Bayram Paketi.”

For many, the social and feasting aspects have eclipsed the sacrificial nature of this time and this, together with increasing regulation of the slaughter, means that people are becoming far removed from the holiday’s original meaning.

Campaigns to encourage Turks to donate to a school or charity have become more evident in the media in recent years and this, together with increasing urbanization and the necessity of using car parks or other open spaces for communal slaughter – all of which has become subject to inevitable Turkish bureaucracy – may deter more from observing the festival in the traditional way.

Certainly TV footage of apparent carnage and mass slaughter makes many think twice before participating, although villages and small towns in southwest Turkey, which still have their farms and gardens, continue to make the sacrifice a family affair.

A long-standing resident of the Mediterranean town of Bodrum considered the implications of tourism and the traditional observance of these religious festivals.

“When the Feast of the Sacrifice falls during the winter months it is a great time for families to get together,” he said. “But I fear that as it gradually moves back into the tourist season, we will all be too busy to see our friends and family in three years, when the 18-year summertime bayram era begins. [Feast of the Sacrifice will start on Oct. 25 in 2012.]

“I wonder how religious observance will survive in the holiday resorts at that time? I remember telling my guests just to look the other way if they thought they would not be able to cope with the sight of an animal having its throat cut, so perhaps that’s what we should be doing now.”

Slaughtering animals on special days is not unique to Turkey or the Muslim world. Although turkeys hold a different, non-religious significance to non-Muslims, it must nevertheless be remembered that more than 46 million of these birds are slaughtered at Thanksgiving in the United States every year and statistics suggest that as many as 10 million are roasted in British ovens at Christmas. So many nationalities, religions and cultures are used to having a meaty feast, but for some it is the public, visible and necessarily bloody process of slaughter that really upsets them.

“I think it’s so sad. The goats are so sweet, it makes me cry to think about it,” was one foreigner’s reaction when asked about the Feast of the Sacrifice. Rather more pragmatic was the response: “I just try not to be in Turkey during this time but accept that it’s part of living here.”

Many feel that the holy festival has been hijacked by consumerism in the same way that some Christians feel about Christmas and that it has become a tradition without the religious and altruistic sincerity it once held.

It will be interesting to see what happens when the time of the festival moves toward the tourist season. For the first time in 20 years, areas now exploding with mass tourism may have to make some tough and unpopular decisions. The last time around, the public sacrifice of animals was much more evident than it is now, so maybe attitudes have already begun to undergo a change. Likewise, many who fasted in the holy month of Ramadan during the winter months have found that trying to work long hours in the tourism sector, as the weather gets hotter, makes it difficult – and sometimes even dangerous – for them to fulfill their quota of long summer days without food or water.

While it is essential that Muslims in Turkey are left to make their own decisions about how to observe their faith in a changing world, tourism, multiculturalism and shifts in attitudes, values and lifestyles and what is considered acceptable will almost certainly impact this important event. Even during the last decade, the “blood on the streets” described by some has been reduced, but for the majority of non-Muslim foreigners it is a case of accepting and understanding the country in which they have chosen to live. The majority of us in Fethiye seem to be doing just that.

What is the Feast of the Sacrifice?

For practicing Muslims, the Feast of the Sacrifice is seen as an essential tenant of faith. A four-day festival, which takes place 70 days after the fasting month of Ramadan, it is a time for prayer and celebration. It is also an integral past of the pilgrimage to Mecca. After the animal has had its throat cut and the blood has drained away, the meat is cut and then shared – one third saved for the household, one third shared between friends and neighbors and the final third given to the poor. 

The Feast of the Sacrifice is the reenactment of İbrahim’s (Abraham) willingness to sacrifice his son İsmail (Isaac) to God. Seeing his obedience, God substituted a ram for İbrahim to sacrifice instead of his son. The story is told in the Bible and is significant for the world’s three major Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. For Islam it is kept as a holy feast where a cloven-hoofed animal is ritually slaughtered in remembrance of İbrahim and for the forgiveness of sins.