Iftar Dinner Tent allows student easy access to Ramadan meal traditions

Even though Pitt students are no strangers to fixtures from other cultures popping into their… Even though Pitt students are no strangers to fixtures from other cultures popping into their lives, from the Mongolian yurt that appears on the Union Lawn for a few days each year to taking classes in the Cathedral’s many international rooms, most students have probably never tasted piyaz.

That can change, however, when they see the white tents near the log cabin commemorating Pitt’s founding, which celebrate the Muslim holiday Ramadan.

There is a longstanding tradition among the Islamic Turkish community of inviting friends and family over for dinners to break the fast of Ramadan. The Turkish Cultural Center of Pittsburgh is taking this practice a step further by opening its doors — or tent — to the entire Pitt community.

The TCCP, together with the student organization Intercultural Dialogue Group of University of Pittsburgh, is holding meals known as Iftar dinners to break fast. The dinners, which started on Sept. 2, begin every evening at 7:50 p.m. on the Cathedral lawn by Bellefield and Forbes avenues. The final dinner will take place tonight.

Mahmut Demir, executive board member of the TCCP and vice president of the Intercultural Dialogue Group, said in an e-mail interview that the Turkish community of Pittsburgh had been thinking of setting up a tent to share the celebration of Ramadan for several years.

“After long discussions about location, size, menu and content, this year we managed to make it real,” Demir said.

“Every year in Turkey during the month of Ramadan, people set up tents to share food with people as a reflection of the warmth that Ramadan brings into their hearts. Ramadan without Ramadan Iftar tents is incomplete,” he said.

The TCCP organizes many other activities with similar intents to the Iftar dinners for the Pittsburgh Turkish community, including friendship and dialogue dinners, an international children’s festival, discussion panels on various topics, whirling dervishes of rumi shows and food distribution in coordination with the Pittsburgh Food Bank in observation of the Muslim holiday of Eid Al Adha.

Sefa Karalti, a Pitt graduate student and member of the TCCP, said of the Iftar dinner event, “It doesn’t matter what nation or faith people are of, we want

everyone to join us.”

In keeping with Karalti’s sentiment, individuals of all different backgrounds were present. Some had celebrated Iftar with friends before, while others were attending the dinner for the first time.

Long tables were set up for communal-style dining. Modern soft drinks and bottled water provided a contrast with the traditional nature of the dinner and the many attendees in traditional dress. Many more young children were present than one might expect at an event held on a college campus, creating a pleasant family vibe. A PowerPoint projection before the meal displayed the transliteration and translation of the Maghrib evening prayer while a sound recording of the prayer was played.

Karalti explained that those observing Ramadan would break their fast with traditional sugared dates after a short prayer. Aside from the dates, she said that any sweets could be eaten. Graduate student Bekir Mugayiteglu said that dates are not a Turkish tradition but rather have Arabic roots that can be traced to the prophet Muhammad.

The food was provided by the Doner Kebab House restaurant located on Semple Street. Mugayiteglu assured that it was authentic and said, “We go there [to Doner Kebab House] when we miss food from home.”

Following the dates, volunteers served a thick, subtly spiced tomato soap accompanied by toasted pita bread. The main course included Istim kebabs of spiced ground beef neatly wrapped in eggplant and topped with green pepper, rice — gently salted and light as air — and piyaz, a salad-like dish of beans, lettuce, cucumber, lemon and olive oil. For dessert, attendees ate baklava, a very popular dessert in the Turkish region and one to which several different cultures would like to claim the origin, according to dinner attendant Ebru Hos.

Fasting during the holiday of Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam. Demir said that fasting all day helps people to understand hunger and the importance of helping the needy, making the sharing of food even more important.

“Serving food in the tent helps people come together, know each other better and close the gap between who has wealth and who is in need,” he said.