Ashoora Feast, Prophet Noah's Meal
We held an Ashoora Feast, cosponsored with the Center for University Ministry on March 12, 2003.
Mehmet Ali gave a short speech outlining the place of Ashoora in the Islamic as well as traditional Turkish culture. Here are some excerpts from his speech:
"Muslims use a lunar calendar for religious days and events. Since there is a 11 day discrepancy between the solar and the lunar calendars, that means every year, lunar calendar days fall on different solar dates. First month of lunar calendar is Muharram which is now and the tenth day of Muharram is Ashoora, which basically means ten in Arabic. We have importance attached to this day and this information comes from different sources. One of them is hadith, sayings of Prophet Muhammad PBUH and apparently some important historical events took place on this day. The first one goes like this:
When the Prophet came to Medina, he found (the Jews) fasting on the day of 'Ashura' (i.e. 10th of Muharram). They used to say: "This is a great day on which God saved Moses and drowned the folk of Pharaoh. Moses observed the fast on this day, as a sign of gratitude to God." The Prophet said, "I am closer to Moses than they." So, he observed the fast (on that day) and ordered the Muslims to fast on it. Probably the most pertinent event to the ashoorah pudding we are having tonight seems to be Prophet Noah's PBUH salvation from the deluge.
There is a folktale which explains the reason for the preparation of this delicacy which is as follows: When Noah's ark landed on Mt. Agri (Ararat) there was great joy and to celebrate the end of the deluge and offer thanks to God those on the Ark prepared a delicacy with what was left on the Ark. There were grains, dried fruits and pulses on the vessel such as figs, nuts, wheat, chickpeas, almonds and apricots which were cooked together with sugar. According to this tradition asure represents abundance and good luck.
Although the story of Noah is shared throughout the Islamic cultures all over the world, I found out that the ashoorah dessert is not common to all of them. Isn't it lucky Turkey is one of those countries where it has become a tradition to prepare this lovely food?
In Turkey, it is customary to prepare asure at a certain time of the year, which occurs for 10 days during the Moslem month of Muharram. However, in Turkey, you can find asure in pastry shops throughout the year.
Asure prepared at home is shared with the neighbors. Although it might be a bit difficult to do this in big cities, generally people who prepare asure send a cup to each of the neighbors in their building. Others invite relatives for dinner and serve asure for dessert. It is well-known that Turks love to share what they have with their neighbors and it is a custom to prepare asure in large cauldrons and distribute it to the poor. It doesn't always have to be the poor, neighbors also get to eat this dessert."
And some views from the night.
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