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On Fridays my father would come home from work really early. He would wash, then put on his newest and cleanest clothes. We would all then go to the synagogue for Shabat. There would be a lot of different dishes on our return from the synagogue. A lot of importance was given to this meal. There would be prayers and the kidush [Kiddush] at home. On Saturday morning we would go to the synagogue without breaking our fast. After the kidush, there would be the seuda [breakfast] and that's when we ate.
The religious holidays were very joyful at home. At Purim, everyone would go visit everyone else. A special dessert called 'mahmur' would be made. Mahmur is made from flour and semola, then stuffed with chestnuts, pistachios and cinnamon. After baking this in the oven, you put powdered sugar on it. This is a special dessert of Urfa. There would also be cookies, and then another kind of dessert made by mixing almonds with pistachios and sugar. On Pesah, we would keep the matsa inside special cloths and eat it during the whole festival. In our house, we used the same kitchenware for Purim and Pesah. Even then they would be washed very carefully in a big cauldron where water would be boiled for this special kitchenware. My aunt's children would also come to our house and we would say the 'beraha.' We would be at least 15-20 people. I notice people reading the Agada [Hagaddah] nowadays; it is read very fast and finished really quickly. Our father, however, would take care to explain everything to us in detail. While reading the Agada, we would first read the text in Hebrew and then we would also read the translation in Arabic so we could understand what the text said. This was special to us. Now this tradition has disappeared. My father could understand all the prayers he read, we couldn't.
On Shavuot we had other special foods. We had a dessert that was made with honey, specially for Shavuot. This dessert is the same as the Turkish 'sutlach' [a dessert made with milk, sugar, vanilla and rice], but honey is used instead of sugar. On Sukot [Sukkot] we built a suka [sukkah] in our house. The columns of the suka were there until the day we left Urfa. For Roshashana [Rosh Hashanah] the same foods that are made in Istanbul were made in Urfa as well. The only difference was an additional dessert made of the long marrow. It is the jam version of the pumpkin dessert that we know. I've never seen this here [in Istanbul]; however, my sister continued this Urfa tradition here in Istanbul.
The religious holidays were very joyful at home. At Purim, everyone would go visit everyone else. A special dessert called 'mahmur' would be made. Mahmur is made from flour and semola, then stuffed with chestnuts, pistachios and cinnamon. After baking this in the oven, you put powdered sugar on it. This is a special dessert of Urfa. There would also be cookies, and then another kind of dessert made by mixing almonds with pistachios and sugar. On Pesah, we would keep the matsa inside special cloths and eat it during the whole festival. In our house, we used the same kitchenware for Purim and Pesah. Even then they would be washed very carefully in a big cauldron where water would be boiled for this special kitchenware. My aunt's children would also come to our house and we would say the 'beraha.' We would be at least 15-20 people. I notice people reading the Agada [Hagaddah] nowadays; it is read very fast and finished really quickly. Our father, however, would take care to explain everything to us in detail. While reading the Agada, we would first read the text in Hebrew and then we would also read the translation in Arabic so we could understand what the text said. This was special to us. Now this tradition has disappeared. My father could understand all the prayers he read, we couldn't.
On Shavuot we had other special foods. We had a dessert that was made with honey, specially for Shavuot. This dessert is the same as the Turkish 'sutlach' [a dessert made with milk, sugar, vanilla and rice], but honey is used instead of sugar. On Sukot [Sukkot] we built a suka [sukkah] in our house. The columns of the suka were there until the day we left Urfa. For Roshashana [Rosh Hashanah] the same foods that are made in Istanbul were made in Urfa as well. The only difference was an additional dessert made of the long marrow. It is the jam version of the pumpkin dessert that we know. I've never seen this here [in Istanbul]; however, my sister continued this Urfa tradition here in Istanbul.
Location
Urfa/Şanlıurfa
Türkiye
Interview
Harun Bozo
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