We were at Vefa Greek Orthodox Church, aka the 1st of the month church, for the second time today and spoke to a couple of the visitors. The young woman below was Muslim and the others we talked to were a mother and daughter, the former of whom said she was neither Muslim nor Christian but just believed in God. Most of the Muslims we've talked to who attend churches are older and the young ones mostly say that they are just tourists or visiting as they would a museum; they tend to be much more orthodox about religions being separate and the proper place for Muslims to pray being home or the mosque and not feeling anything spiritual in churches etc. But the woman below was clearly an exception to such orthodoxy; as you can see she prayed in Christian fashion after lighting candles for various family members and was on a first name basis with the priest.
Here she is threading a key she bought to make a wish (one is supposed to bring the key back when one's wish comes true) on a keychain with a bunch of other church keys.
Below she's walking us through the routine others do of rubbing their keys against the frames of the icons to cement their wishes, which she thinks is silly and bad because it damages the historical artifacts. Funny how everyone seems to draw the line of superstition in a different place.
Here's a Muslim woman doing just that on a previous visit. The church is most visited on the 1st of the month, particularly by people (women mostly) with special wishes to make related to illness, children getting into school, etc.
Today's informant was also very critical telling us about seeing a woman who she said didn't know what she was doing who turned on all the spigots of the ayazma in turn and just left them running--what a waste of water.
Her relationship with the priest was particularly interesting. As with others I've seen she seemed incredibly happy to see him and they greeted warmly and touched each others faces gently like lovers and she talked at length (I didn't glean what about, as my prof said we should back off to be respectful at this point). At this point she just chatted with him; it was only after going in for a cigarette that she returned and the priest wrapped his cloth (I should learn what it's called) around her and gave her a blessing.
He's a dindar shrink, my professor whispered to me. More like a charismatic guru in the robe of a religious bureaucrat, I thought.
Here she is threading a key she bought to make a wish (one is supposed to bring the key back when one's wish comes true) on a keychain with a bunch of other church keys.
Below she's walking us through the routine others do of rubbing their keys against the frames of the icons to cement their wishes, which she thinks is silly and bad because it damages the historical artifacts. Funny how everyone seems to draw the line of superstition in a different place.
Here's a Muslim woman doing just that on a previous visit. The church is most visited on the 1st of the month, particularly by people (women mostly) with special wishes to make related to illness, children getting into school, etc.
Today's informant was also very critical telling us about seeing a woman who she said didn't know what she was doing who turned on all the spigots of the ayazma in turn and just left them running--what a waste of water.
Her relationship with the priest was particularly interesting. As with others I've seen she seemed incredibly happy to see him and they greeted warmly and touched each others faces gently like lovers and she talked at length (I didn't glean what about, as my prof said we should back off to be respectful at this point). At this point she just chatted with him; it was only after going in for a cigarette that she returned and the priest wrapped his cloth (I should learn what it's called) around her and gave her a blessing.
He's a dindar shrink, my professor whispered to me. More like a charismatic guru in the robe of a religious bureaucrat, I thought.
No comments:
Post a Comment