“We got a circumcision wedding in Turkey. When you’re a kid, and you’re a boy, you know, and you get a circumcision, you do a wedding for him. Here [in America] usually you get a circumcision when you’re little kid, like a baby, but in Turkey, it was like, when you were, like, six, seven years old, they were doing, they were doing that. For example for me, I got a circumcision when I was six, and my parents did a wedding for me. Said we call circumcision. Wedding is for the boys and, like they invited a bunch of people, like in my wedding, that was like four or 500 people. Like 400 300 at least people in my circumcision wedding, and they give you money, and people is, having fun, you know, and that kind of stuff. 

So in the morning, when it was like one to 2pm in the afternoon, we’re doing a convoy. And probably, like, as much as the cars they come in, it’s like 20, 30 cars. They were like 35 cars. You know, we go one by one like everybody follows each other. It’s just one line. And everybody’s like, using their honk. And it’s like, sometimes being like, 20 cars, 30 cars, for the cars, you know, yeah, and people is coming, they following you. You being in the first car, usually. And, you just, like, telling the people who doesn’t know you, oh, I got the circumcision, you know. It’s a tradition too. Yeah, it’s on the wedding day. after that you just get them prepared. Youhave, a specific clothes that you should wear, and you wearing that clothes, and you just getting ready.

They are like traditional clothes. 

In the wedding, usually we have a pasta. not a pasta, actually, it’s a dessert we call pasta, but it’s like a cake, like a birthday cake, but a really big one, like, maybe, 200 people cake, you know, they can eat, slices, you know. And you have that and you dancing. And after, like, a couple hours, you have a different, you just not changing the clothes, but they give you something, and you wear something, and people is coming, and they starting to give you gold or, like money, but on the clothes, they put with the needle. Yeah, they give you money, they give you gold, whatever they give you, like, and you just thank them like, ‘Thank you.’ and your parents are in the same line. You ,your parents, your grandpa, you know, you’re waiting in the same line. And people is like giving you some stuff, presents, I’m coming from the Aegean side, we have a specific, like a dance for the Aegeans. And we did, that actually, (the zeybek dance).”

Context: 

This is a widespread traditional rite of passage in Turkey called sünnet düğünü. The traditional dance referenced is the zeybek dance. The informant said he didn’t understand, but knew it was important to his grandfather. 

Analysis:

This ritual is a public celebration of the informant’s transition towards manhood, and social recognition, and religious belonging. The convoy announces this to the broader community. The pinning of gold or money to clothes is present in other Turkish celebrations, like weddings and births, and ritualizes support and symbolic investment into the informant and his family, who are in line to receive gifts with him. In many ways, the celebration is for the family just as much, if not more, than for the informant who at that age, didn’t understand what was going on or why. The celebration as a whole ties Muslim identity (religious duty of circumcision) and regional community to the boy’s identity.