Many of us attend special Bayram mid-morning prayer at the Blue Mosque. Because it is a crowded holiday, and the prime minister is in the house, we are not allowed to bring our cameras inside. This is a picture of the interior that I found at http://updatecenter.britannica.com/eb/image?binaryId=95924&rendTypeId=4
We have our first Istanbul chance to experience the challenges of gender-segregation in worship. The two hardest things for me about that were:
1) We were behind a screen and couldn't see much of the amazing room and varied people.
2) We were far from Ibrahim and had little idea what was going on during a VERY LONG talk in Turkish (turns out it was all about with what animals and how to perform the ritual sacrifice).
One thing I liked about it was: being with women from all over the world, speaking many languages, and dressed in various styles and degrees of hijab. Because the Blue Mosque is in Sultanahmet neighborhood, which is very low residentially, the Mosque tends to attract tourists and pilgrims.
After prayer, we breakfast in the Hotel Arcadia's fabulous view rooftop dining room:
Blue Mosque and Marmara
Cathy reveals the Bodies of Water
Seminarians try to remember their church history: A chain was placed across the Golden Horn. By whom and when? And who took their boats out of the water and rolled them on greased logs to seize their victory? (featuring Cathy and Darcy)
Cathy & Shams discuss awareness, memory, discipline, and pigeon poop.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pKL7vBWpdI
After breakfast, we head over to the Grand Vizer. A profound opportunity arises as a cow is walked through the restaraunt and into the courtyard, and we realize it is going to be sacrificed! Ritual, bewilderment, excitement, reverence, concern. We are the newcomers (strange? foreign?), participating with our witness (or the absence of our witness).
After breakfast, we head over to the Grand Vizer. A profound opportunity arises as a cow is walked through the restaraunt and into the courtyard, and we realize it is going to be sacrificed! Ritual, bewilderment, excitement, reverence, concern. We are the newcomers (strange? foreign?), participating with our witness (or the absence of our witness).
I eat meat all the time, I am in my 40s, and I have never before watched an animal be slaughtered. I am aware that what is transparent here today in this courtyard in Turkey is so much more ritualized and accountable than what happens all the time out-of-site and without ritual in slaughterhouses in my country. Still, emotions and ethical questions are abundant and complex for me during this event.
If you only watch one clip of the cow (actually a bull calf), I recommend this bloodless one:
Faces of the pilgrims a bit further in the process:
2 more clips of the sacrifice, the second one bloody.
Meanwhile & afterwards, pilgrims imbibe inside the Grand Vizer
same Lunch with asr athan
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