Kurban-Bayram: The Lamb Rite at the O.K. Corral - by Kristen Stevens
Non-Turkish children might wonder how groaning animals behind their apartments or blood in the street relate to their own religious or cultural identity. More than one billion Muslims are taking part in the Feast of the Sacrifice that celebrates Abraham's devotion to God through the ritual slaughter of an animal. Muslims, like Christians and Jews, revere Abraham for answering God's call to sacrifice his son. The four-day holiday for Muslims began this past Thursday in countries all over the world. Families gather for the feast around their elders before visiting other family and friends. Muslims celebrate the feast by sacrificing a domestic animal — a sheep, goat, cow, buffalo or camel — as a symbol of Abraham's loyalty to Allah (God), and divide the meat among family members, friends and the needy. To show respect for the hand that brings the bread on this holiday, children kiss and touch the hands of their elders to their foreheads. In return they receive gifts of money or chocolates. The Feast of Sacrifice, or Kurban Bayram, focuses on Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son on Allah's command. In turn, Allah spared his son's life at the last moment by substituting a sheep instead. Christian tradition looks at the sacrifice of Abraham's son Isaac as a foretelling of the sacrifice of Jesus, while Islamic tradition speaks of the sacrifice of Abraham's firstborn Ishmael. The Koran does not name his son, although the full narrative points to Ishmael (Koran 37:99-113).
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