Holidays – a Time to Learn
07 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in Kurdistan Tags: Holiday, Iraq, Kurdistan
This morning we woke up to a desperate pounding on our door. We knew it was a holiday, but we had gone to sleep expecting it to be like the last… completely uneventful. And it would have been had it not been for the sweet grandma who lives across the street.
When I finally got to the door she had gone already, but she must have seen me out on the porch because a few minutes later the pounding began again. Thinking it was one of the kids, I snapped the curtain open with a look of frustration. I hope she didn’t see it, because she looked like the holiday angel. She was dressed in her best clothes and standing there with a tray full of food. They had been up since 4am preparing the holiday feast and she had brought over two servings for us so we wouldn’t miss out.
After we ate, it was still early and having been woken up so suddenly, we were still tired. We decided it wouldn’t kill the holiday if we went back to bed. Just as I was dozing off, the pounding began again. I made it to the door in time, “why are you sleeping?” she said “it’s the holiday!”
The next event had begun. All the men of the neighborhood were collecting in the street to go around the street, knock on doors, wish happy holiday and collect candy. We would have completely missed it if she hadn’t come knocking on our door. We didn’t get any pictures of this but Matt did make some new friends and come back with pockets full of candy.
We have found that no matter how many questions we ask or as much as we try to prepare for these things, we can never really predict what our involvement in the traditions of the day will be. Last holiday, I cleaned the house and got the bowl of candy ready, and we waited all day. This time, we would have slept right through all the action if it hadn’t been for our sweet old neighbor, it is nice to be cared about.
Here’s a picture I took of me and Shoocree Han a while ago. She has always been so sweet to us.
