Food is so central to all the great religions - it symbolizes community and the depths that only emerge in sacred kononia. In celebration of Ashura, my Turkish Muslim friends from the Cosmos Foundation brought all of our staff here at the Food Bank bowls of what is called Noah's pudding - the myth (and of course, it is a myth - facts could never be so profound!) recalls Noah on the ark making the pudding to celebrate the receding of the waters. My friends took bowls to several shelters and meal programs as well - a symbol of renewal. In obedience to, yet as a transformation of older atonement traditions thatrequire the slaughter of bulls at the close of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting - the meat from the bulls was processed and donated to the Food Bank for delivery to a variety of food pantries and shelters.
I confess, there are traditions around the Muslim holiday of Ashura that make me less celebrative. Radical adherents who process to Holy shrines beating themselves with chains to share the pain and suffering experienced at the murder of Mohammed's grandson, an event that has divided the Muslim world ever since, may need in our time to be substituted by the ways of truth and reconciliation.
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