Today and tomorrow the school is closed for the Muslim holiday of Gurban. This school is closed for all Azerbaijan national holidays--I learn about them as they come up.
Last week I asked the eighth-graders exactly what Gurban commemorates. The local students explained that it's a day when you kill a sheep and give away pieces to your neighbors, particularly neighbors who are poorer than you. "And if you're poorer than your neighbors?" my co-teacher asked. "Then they give you pieces of their sheep," was the response.
So a day to trade around pieces of sheep; basically, a day of charity. (I looked up Gurban online, and it does have to do with Abraham and Isaac and the ram that Abraham killed instead of Isaac.)
I was wondering how I, age 13, would have explained the Feast of the Assumption to a Muslim. It would have sounded even more whacked out than Gurban.
