Showing posts with label rituals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rituals. Show all posts
Postcard from Mallorca: savouring sunsets
Can you ever get enough sunsets? I can't. And it seems people in Mallorca can't either. We spent a couple of nights at Port de Soller (from where we could see the sun setting over the sea from our terrace at the Hotel Esplendido), and observed the nightly sunset-watching ritual. Locals and tourists alike take up their positions at cafe tables and benches along the promenade, or perch on the rocks on the seafront with the fishermen to take in the scene in silence. The moment the sun sinks beneath the horizon there's applause all around. We also enjoyed a wonderful sunset from our balcony at Ca's Xorc with a glass of cava in hand. As the sun sank over the mountains, creating silhouettes of the palm trees and olive groves, the whole sky turned pink, before the big ball of fire disappeared into the sea. Sigh.
The reward of rituals when we travel
Don't you love a good ritual? I do. And some cultures are just so good at doing them. Middle Eastern cultures especially. Take the carpet buying ritual with its unfurling of rug after rug over countless cups of tea. The Italians are do rituals well too, from the late afternoon aperitivo, essentially cocktails somewhere in the sunshine with complimentary snacks that these days verge on a buffet meal, to the passeggiata, that see-and-be-seen evening promenade when the whole community comes out in their best threads to do laps of the town and socialize. When I'm normally at 'home' (we've been on the road three years now!), I love my rituals. And none more so than my weekend ritual in Dubai (and before that Abu Dhabi), which for me was the only way I found worked best to wind down, and that was to relax with a Morrocan mint tea (the pot jammed with fresh fragrant mint) and a dish of sweets (either baklava or Turkish delight, whatever was around), perched on the bench by my window where I could look down and watch the action in the neighbourhood street below. One pot of tea and all was right in the world again. The thing I love about identifying and adopting rituals when I travel is that they make me feel at 'home'. And I don't mean Dubai, or even Australia, but they make me feel at home in the city we're staying in, especially if we're there renting an apartment for a while. Joining the locals in their daily rituals is, I guess, just one way of trying to live like a local, and that's partly what travelling is about for me. What about you?
Making connections: traditions and rituals of love and devotion, or, When you wish upon a heart
I found another photo that's similar to the one I showed you earlier of the ribbons and pieces of cloth tied at an Islamic shrine in Syria. I took this photo in the lovely garden of a gold onion domed Russian Orthodox church in the Bulgarian countryside, where the branches of a tree were tied with hundreds of strings, many bearing tiny trinkets such as hearts. The universal symbol for love, no? So once again I'm reminded of that 1970s song 'Tie a yellow ribbon round the ole Oak tree...' One theory, from the USA, has the tradition of ribbon-tying dating back to the 19th century when women wore yellow ribbons to show their devotion to their 'sweethearts serving in the US Cavalry (yellow being the official Cavalry colour), and then sees it widening throughout society in the 1970s to signify remembrance of a loved one away in the military or in prison. During the ongoing Iraq War, families of US soldiers have been wrapping large yellow ribbons around their porches. The American Folklore Centre researched the origins of the tradition, finding connections to the Civil War, a prison legend cited in a 1959 book, and even to Shakespeare's Othello. Having travelled all over the world, and seen ribbons and strings (like the locks) in many different countries, I find it baffling that a researcher would only look at Western references and that their research didn't cross more borders, cultures and religions. This academic paper I found on 'Religious practices in the Turco-Iranian world: continuity and change' by Martin van Bruinessen, a scholar from Utrecht University, looks at the long list of 'superstitious' (and therefore anti-Islamic) rituals of Muslim pilgrims in Turkey, who treat visits to shrines as cheap family outings and behave like ordinary tourists; they tie pieces of cloth to the gate of the shrine and ribbons and strings to trees, in addition to lighting candles, placing 'wishing stones' on the tombs, and circling the courtyard trees seven times. The Russian (and Greek) Orthodox Christians do the same thing. I remember participating in the act with my Russian grandparents every Easter, walking around the Church at midnight, holding candles. And I expect they do the same thing in Bulgaria.
Making connections: tokens of love and devotion, or, Tie a (yellow) ribbon 'round the...
Looking through some photos from our trip to Syria last year (I was motivated to reminisce after skimming through our just-released Syria and Lebanon guidebook), I came across these ribbons tied to the tomb of an important Islamic figure. If you travel around the Muslim world and visit mosques and shrines, you'll soon start to notice these ribbons tied to the gate that protects the tombs venerated by worshippers. The ribbons are mostly green, which is the colour of Islam, yet, just like in my photo here, you'll see all sorts of colors used, and sometimes you'll even see pieces of headscarves, bandages, and even tissues and toilet paper - whatever people can get their hands on, really. Some believe it's a sign of respect and deference, of devotion and love, and of remembrance. Others leave a ribbon after asking for something, for help, for answers, so they leave a bit of themselves. It seems to be a Shi'a custom, as Sunnis don't believe in shrines, their graves are very simple, they believe in acting as if the deceased person were still alive, so some Sunnis find the act objectionable. One Muslim friend told me the ribbon is a sign of something that comes from within as much as it is a demonstration of an action for others to witness. The photo of the ribbons reminded me of the locks of love we've been seeing all over Europe, and Italy in particular over the past few months, a sign of love and affection. But it also reminded me of a song from the 1970s, which was a huge hit when I was a child, 'Tie a yellow ribbon 'round the ole Oak tree (if you still love me)'. In this case the ribbon was also a token of remembrance and devotion.