Forgotten moments of childhood spent abroad

The question, asked with journalistic reflex, hovered in the air and lost its meaning in the depth of feelings; a reminder that bayram is not always synonymous with happiness or joy.

"My childhood was spent at war. I don't remember anything. You forget bayram during wartime," Adnena Zuliç, a third year student at Ankara's Gazi University, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review in an interview.

"The war emerged in 1992. Everyone had to fight; my mother joined the army, while my father was working in Slovenia. We had to move frequently as the Serbs occupied our town," she began to tell her story.

To escape the hardships of war, her father sent money through a courier and she was able to get to Slovenia. But her mother, Hediye Tatareviç, chose to stay and continue the fight in Bosnia.

"I had lived with my father for four years in a Christian country. Everyone was curious about whether their families and friends were alive. Where was my mother? I heard nothing from her for four years," continued Adnena speaking in Turkish. "After the end of the war in 1996 my mother turned up and took me to Croatia. My mother and father had split up after living separately for four years due to the war."

She lives in Croatia with her mother but visits Bosnia on special occasions including religious feasts to see visit family. "My mother didn't want to return to Bosnia after the war but now she is thinking about it," said Adnena, who came to Turkey three years ago for university.

"Thank God, I haven't experienced any difficulties in Turkey. We have very similar cultures," she said, recalling the 600-year Ottoman presence in the Balkans. This year, Adnena will spend the Feast of Sacrifice in Ankara, far away from her mother.

Muslims across the world will begin celebrating Monday "Kurban Bayramı," or the Feast of Sacrifice, a time associated with the Islamic values of solidarity and forgiveness. This special holiday is referred to as "Kurban Bajram" in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Indonesia, they call it "Idul Adha. What name is given to the holiday changes from one country to another, but the reasons and traditions behind it remain the same everywhere.

Feelings alive
"Whatever you celebrate, I celebrate," said a 40-year-old Filipino woman who has lived in Turkey since 1996. Esni Çelenligil, married to a Turk with two children, is from the predominantly Muslim island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines.

"My grandfather was an Imam. I went to a madrasah (religious school) when I was a kid and learned how to read the Koran. I thought of Islam all the time. For me religion is very important. I am Muslim by birth, not converted," she said. "I was raised as a Muslim. It is not difficult for me to live in Turkey. I am happy here."

Today, bayrams are not like those in the good old days, said Misellita Maharani Purtaş, an Indonesian who has lived in Turkey since 2002. "We were sacrificing our animals in our orchard in my childhood and then making a list of families who were in need in the nearby village to distribute the meat to. That was really meaningful." Misselita, who is married to a Turk, plans to celebrate this year’s bayram in her husband's hometown of Kahramanmaraş in the southeast.