One week after Efe and Kaan's circumcisions (see earlier blog - Sunnet & Nazar), a celebration was held for Efe. Called a Sunnet Düğün (pronouced soo-NET doon), the celebration is one of the numerous life-cycle celebrations that fill up the social calendar of Turkish families. There are so many things to celebrate with a large party - circumcisions, engagements, and weddings being the most prominent of those. Such parties can have hundreds of people. Other things are celebrated with parties at home, which are still large by American standards, and often involve elaborate home-cooked meals for more people than one would have at a traditional American Thanksgiving: the birth of a new family member, a new job, a new house, retirement, religious holidays, national holidays, a relative vising from out of town... In short, Turkish culture
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