Turkish delight: Togetherness

Holiday fete draws hundreds

Families across Turkey gathered in recent days for a Muslim holiday that brings together generations to celebrate with food and gifts.

Thousands of miles away in the Triangle, a few hundred Turkish and Turkish-American residents of North Carolina gathered as their own extended family in their adopted country.

They ate kavurma, a traditional beef dish, borek, a cheese pastry, and baklava, the popular Middle Eastern dessert. They watched traditional plays performed by a touring group from Ankara -- the capital of Turkey -- and gave gifts to the dozens of children in the crowd.

But mostly, they shared a common tradition and religious observance known in the Turkish language as Kurban Bayrami, or feast of the sacrifice (it is called Eid al-Adha in Arabic). Although the four-day holiday officially ended Friday, the event Sunday at the Cary Senior Center drew people with Turkish roots from as far away as Charlotte, New Bern and Greensboro.

"This is a chance to see friends and to feel connected to my home country," said Huseyin Yildirim, a Durham resident and economics professor at Duke University. He's lived about half his 10 years in the United States in the Triangle.

An estimated 300 to 400 families from Turkey now live in the Triangle, say leaders of local Turkish organizations. A group called the American Turkish Association of North Carolina was joined last year by the Divan Cultural Center in Cary, a group that supports the social and cultural needs of local Turkish people.

The holiday falls at the end of the hajj, or annual pilgrimage to Mecca, and celebrates, in the Muslim tradition, the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son. He was spared when God directed that Abraham sacrifice a sheep instead, and Muslims in Turkey and elsewhere celebrate by donating meat or money to the poor.

The cultural center helped plan Sunday's celebration, and its members organized the traditional animal sacrifice that lies at the heart of the Kurban Bayrami holiday. Ekrem Hatip, a computer consultant and secretary of the Divan center, said several members joined together to have a cow killed at a slaughterhouse in Siler City that observes the strict Islamic requirements for killing animals.

"We will try to find people in need," Hatip said, "and we'll put some of the meat in the deep freeze for future Divan events."

Emin Pamucak, an IBM employee and past president of the American Turkish Association, grew up in the United States from the age of 11 and continues to observe the traditions both of America and his parents' homeland. He's now president of the Bridge to Turkey Fund, a charitable group in North Carolina that raises money for poor communities in Turkey, particularly for schools.

Pamucak said Sunday's celebration was a chance to see friends and observe his cultural background. "We're under one roof and celebrating together the food and our traditions," he said. "It's a way to bring everyone together."