Turkey and I

I remember the moment that I decided to come to Turkey. It was the worst moment in my life, Because I had to leave my country and go to another one to study. Besides, I have strange feeling of homesick move every time I leave Syria even if it was temporary. And this feeling becomes worst if I go to a country have a different culture of mine, and that is what I expected to happen in Turkey.

But I discovered later that was wrong. Especially when I remember myself when I crossed the boarders to the Turkish side and looked behind and said " By By Syria we will never meet until next year". I sat in the car and looked to sides of the road which was filled of stones at the first but after a while I saw the trees of pistachio in a field with farmers who were looking after them, For a moment I thought myself in Syria because we have the same view In the north of it and I told myself that maybe there is a similarity between two countries, But my mind said that farmers and fields are similar in everywhere and this is not a proof.

The view of the city of Killis and Gaziantep  supported this point of view, This view made me felt homesick immediately, Beside that, Everything was unfamiliar, The people, The language, The buildings, Even the stars in the sky, A strange one far from homeland, And I stayed for one week in my room without any connection with the outside world.

But as I said in the beginning, My point of view has changed, Because I broke my voluntary isolation and tried to discover the city, And I wondered that there are many things are similar between Aleppo and Gaziantep, Especially the old city, The same old citadel for example, Besides, Turkish people have the same customs and habits we have, Maybe there are some private ones in their culture but this is rarely, This similarity helped me to start my life in this city without feeling homesick again, And I thanks God for this.

Eıd al-Adha

(Eid al-Adha) is one of the two main festivals for Muslims, It has one time for all Islamic world which begins At the tenth of (Thu al-Higa) and ends at the thirteenth of it.

Like every festival, (Eid al-Adha) has a reason to celebrate it, The first one is to share with people who travel to the holy land their happiness, And the second one is related to a historical story, Which is about (Ibrahim) the prophet and his only son (Ismael), (Ibrahim) Had an order from God to sacrifice his son by slaying him, Both of them obeyed the order, But when (Ibrahim) had almost put the knife on his son throat, (Jibreel) the angel came down from heaven with a big sheep and a message from God said that it was a test from him for (Ibrahim) and his son, and ordered him to slay the sheep in place of (Ismael), Therefor, Every rich Muslim slay a sheep every year and distribute it in three parts, one for poor people, and another one for him, and the last one for his family and friends.

In addition to the sacrificing, There are many customs and habits which are done in this festival, Like visiting the relatives and friends, Giving money and candy to children, And without Forgetting the ( Eid ) pray witch is the most important thing in the festival, This festival remind us that we are all same people, And the barriers we put between us are fake and silly.                                                         

The Halloween

Halloween is a Christian festival which comes in the thirty first of October every year.

This festival has an old rout in history, It was a ceremony for Celts tribes in Britain before centuries, they were believed that their god (Saween) calls the dead souls in this day to arrange it in human bodies they choose it, They were believed there are no barriers between dead world and their world, Therefore, Celts people were getting out from their homes and turning fires off to make these home uncomfortable for souls, Then, They were going to the wilderness and spending the night in it with masks to fear the souls.

This ceremony was one of many ethnical ceremonies celebrated in Europe before the Christianity for many centuries, Therefore, The Vatican had changed these ceremonies - Including Halloween – into Christian festivals.

This festival has many things can be done in it, People put pumpkin on doors – They were using draw in Europe – this tradition is a revival of an old story about a man had been given a lamp in a draw by the devil, and children knock every door and ask (Candy or trick?), It is better for everyone to give them candies or they will bother you, There was another habit in Europe that people were begging (souls cake) from rich people, If you were generous with them they pray for your dead people, And if you were not they will damn you.