Qurban Bayram...

Azerbaijan is celebrating Qurban Bayram...the holiday when every Muslim who can afford sacrifices/slaughters sheep (not only sheep but usually) to show his/her obedience to God and shares the meat with relatives and poor. The holiday when everyone is reminded once more about the importance of sharing and thinking for at least a little while about someone else too...

Here is what I found about this holiday in Wikipedia...

And here is what I wrote about the holiday last year...

Personally for me slaughtering sheep is not only showing obedience but also a way to thank God for life and everything else that comes with it...in moments of pessimism, bad mood, sad occasions its not easy to be positive and/or grateful but I hope and wish that we have plenty of joyful moments and always keep wisdom to stay grateful...they say everything happens for the better...even if we are not able to see/understand it right there...

Be well...and Happy Bayram :)...

Azerbaijan Takes Gold in European Team Chess Championship...

For any country and especially the one which is newly independent, relatively small and is in war/ceasefire situation more like a beaten party any victory means a lot. This is extra reason for recognition, another achievement, inspiration and motivation that is very necessary…

One of these victories for Azerbaijan is taking gold in European Team Chess Championship this Monday, November 2, 2009. The tournament attracted 38 Open and 28 Women’s teams from across Europe. I am citing the website http://chess.about.com/ which says that above mentioned tournament “much like the European Championships in football which are second only to the World Cup in international competition, is likely the second biggest team competition on the chess schedule after the Olympiad.”

I am happy to see that strong culture of chess playing in Azerbaijan survived hard 90s and is up again nowadays and that young people are motivated to play this serious game and represent their country. Well done and we hope for more victories :)

photo courtesy of http://www.eurons2009.com/eng.htm

P.S. My short post about Sheki children chess school here that I wrote back in 2007.

Traditions...hospitality..."What's ours is yours"...

While in Sheki I take photos and think of topics that I would talk about in my blog later...There are two things that I want to touch upon today...firstly about photos lower that I took in summer in Sheki...

As much as we try to convince our mom not to bother we know that she would still prepare pickles that we love so much during summer...and here we are...famous :) Sheki white cucumbers (that I wrote about earlier on my blog here) and lavish tufts of herbs and greens are bought and later pickles are ready...but who says that we wait for winter...we start enjoying them as soon as they are ready and mom always says "See, you didn't want me to bother...its the same story each year :)))..."

famous :) Sheki white cucumbers...
lavish tufts of herbs and greens...ready pickles...

Just as my mother many women in Azerbaijan especially in the regions still prepare their own pickles and do other home made food stuff during summer for their families to enjoy during winter...I wrote about this on my blog earlier here.

The second topic that I wanted to mention today is about the theme of my today's post...

When we visit Sheki for just couple of weeks in summer almost all the households and relatives we visit want to treat us with something, give presents, so that we, the guests, do not leave with empty hands as we say here...so they start thinking about what they can offer, what they can surprise us with, people who came from capital or elsewhere...they really think about it and get concerned...and...usually the solution is that they start treating the guests with their home made pickles and jams and give guests more to take back home and enjoy during winter...they give healthy stuff to children of the families telling parents how good one or the other fruit is etc etc. The idea is to share with guests what they have...there is a good saying in Russian "чем богаты, тем и рады" that web translated for me as "what's ours is yours" which is what I am trying to describe in this post...An example of touching and sincere gesture of sharing and hospitality.

Traditions...hospitality...

Excuses, excuses, excuses...I won't start counting mine for not writing for so long lately...

Today I want to write about traditions and a little bit about hospitality...

Tradition in Sheki requires :) whenever there are guests in the household housewife or anyone appropriate such as grown up girls in the house should arrange the shoes of visitors/guests in pairs...shoes should look "outside" so that it is easier for guests to put them on when they are leaving the house. As I can explain this tradition to myself this makes the entrance look tidier and additional comfort for guests is ensured (this is one of the pillars of hospitality in Azerbaijan - guests must be made as comfortable as possible. Personally I think that this started to work less in modern life, as people i.e. guests started to abuse concept of hospitality, but this is another subject :) Households are bigger in the regions including Sheki comparing to capital. Therefore when one has at least one family visiting, you would have numerous shoes at the entrance. Tradition also says that people should take off shoes when entering the house, since home is home and outside is outside. I agree with this for hygienic reasons and not only but again nowadays when one is dressed up and high heels are a part of this "ensemble", taking off shoes ruins this all :)) Not taking off shoes is more and more common for special events in Baku and sometimes in Sheki, but generally if you are just visiting then shoes are taken off and slippers are offered instead.

So...when I visit Sheki and see how carefully traditions like this are observed it gives me hope that they would be passed on to younger generations. Personally I like this very tradition and try to preserve it in our household...although again flexibility is a must :)

Below are photos of examples of "pairing the guests shoes concept" in practice :) in Sheki...