It’s a holiday this week in Istanbul.
The feast of the sacrifice– Kurban Bayram in Turkish, Eid Al-Adha in Arabic– is the holiday of ritual goat slaughter, marking the story of Abraham offering to sacrifice his son Ishmael to God and instead being allowed to sacrifice a ram in his place. It’s very holy, and Muslims all over the world celebrate.
For Turks, this is the biggest holiday for travel. Everyone flees the city, off to visit family in other parts of the country or (more likely) to squeeze in one last beach holiday on the coast. Many also travel abroad, whether to neighboring countries like Greece or far-flung locales like the Maldives.
This is my third Kurban Bayram in Turkey, and my third one spent staying home in Istanbul. The traveling holiday is, counterintuitively, the time I most enjoy staying still. The city is emptied of most residents, decreasing the chaos level significantly; shops close, traffic thins, appointments get postponed. We’ll meet after Bayram.
My first Kurban Bayram in Istanbul came right on the heels of my first TBEX conference, and I cherished the opportunity to sit in my house, fiddle with my blog, and do little else. (I also ended up wandering around an empty Kasimpasa, trying to find a goat slaughter to photograph. I was unsuccessful and grateful for that.) The second Kurban Bayram came just after I returned to Istanbul after two months in the USA, and I soaked up the unusual quiet as I eased back into my Turkish life.
This year, I could easily travel during Bayram. But I can easily travel any time– my work is remote, my vacation is unlimited. I have a freelance assignment that I am using as an excuse to stay in the city, but I could probably do it in Bulgaria or on a beach. However, given the opportunity to skip the crowds and to wander Istanbul at peak lull, I choose the strange quiet. This is a chance every year to breathe, to stretch, to recalibrate. Soon the city will be buzzing again. For now, I’ll be here, enjoying the relative hush.
Iyi Bayramlar!
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