Last year in November I happened to be in Turkey in the time of Kurban Bayrami (Sacrifice holiday). I was told that the importance of this holiday might be compared to our Christmas (in a non-religious family like mine) or Easter (in religious families).
I realized that even I myself didn´t know much what this holiday was about. One or more families sacrifice an animal to God (or if you prefer, Allah) for several reasons. You give some of the meat to poor people, you cut the animal in a ritual way (the animal must not suffer) and therefore it will help you in your life after life to arrive at heaven etc. etc. The animal can be a sheep, a goat or a cow. It has several rules where, how and by whom it should be cut.
We travelled to Izmir to visit my boyfriend´s family (or better said a very small part of them) to stay with them for this holiday. I was very curious about the sacrificing part but although I am quite open to new experiences, I was kinda scared. The reason is simple: I used to be a vegetarian for six years and I actually decided to become one after seeing a terrifying video about treating farm animals in my country. When teenager, I was a member of possibly all animal societies in my country (I was the crazy girl with petitions). When kid, I used to read fairy tales to carps in our bathtub (we Czechs tend to buy living carps for Christmas dinner and we keep them in the bathtub). Briefly, I have always been very sensitive about animals.
One day we took the car and went to a special fair with sacrifice animals. We didn´t like the first fair so we decided to try another one. I guess I don´t need to comment that I was absolutely the only foreigner around. My boyfriend´s family decided to buy a small bull. And then the "show" started. Of course I started crying already when they were bringing it. Of course I was the only person around who was crying. The hardest part to watch was when the bull understood what was happening and they were trying to bring it on its knees. My boyfriend was trying to take me away standing in front of me telling me not to watch it but I was like hypnotized. I was nodding but watching it eyes wide open over his shoulder. Then it was all very fast and the blood coming from its neck looked completely surrealistic to me.
The following days, there was a lot of meat to eat. The kinds that I never eat back home. But say no when you are a foreign visitor and they are watching and commenting all the time if you eat enough. So three times a day I was making myself eat meat I never eat, killing myself, trying to smile at my boyfriend´s family at the same time assuring them how delicious it was, begging my boyfriend with my eyes to eat it instead of me when they weren´t watching and swearing at his malicious smile that he would pay for it.
