B Dock Netsel Marina
Marmaris, Turkey
Iyi Geҫler
When we began planning what would have been our trip from Malaysia to India and then up the Red Sea, I started to read books that would help me fight my fear of that long ocean passage and cruise through some iffy parts of the world. None were sailing books or even country guides. They were stories of people and their connection to places we would visit. As you know, we never made that passage, but the books I read weren’t wasted. One of my favorites was Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Monk Kidd’s Traveling with Pomegranates. Her stories referring to pomegranates hooked me right off and I’ve been connected with them ever since. (Except to eat them which I’ve no patience for at all.)
Ru
DoraMac
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“’What’s the point of a bracelet if it doesn’t have a story.” That’s what I told Bora AYYILDIZ , owner of Bazaar Ayyildiz when I returned to buy the silver bracelet with the pomegranate story.
Sterling silver bracelet with small garnets like pomegranate seeds.
Break open a pomegranate: see the tiny glossy red seeds? Now you can see why garnet comes from the Latin name of pomegranate, granatum . To the ancient world, garnet was a tiny glossy red gem, bursting with fire and brilliance. http://www.addmorecolortoyourlife.com/gemstones/garnet.asp
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Why did I want any bracelet at all? Along with her lovely clay pipe necklace and earrings, our friend Jane Parker had been wearing 3 lovely silver bracelets (at least one with a boot sale story) and I really liked them so had set off to find one for myself. It would be my cruising memento/keepsake/souvenir*. Well, as you can see, I didn’t get the plain silver bracelet I had gone seeking. But this one came with a pomegranate story so how could I resist? And to top it all off, when a link was removed (now on my necklace) to make the bracelet fit my stick wrist, it left 6 garnets representing pomegranate seeds, which is the exact number of seeds Persephone ate in the Greek myth of her abduction by Hades. Below is the link to our visit to Enna, Sicily where I went looking for the temple of Persephone’s mother Demeter.
Visit to Enna Part 1 of several | MY Doramac www.mydoramac.com/visit-to-enna-part-1-of-several/ Jun 21, 2013 – (While in Hades Persephone ate 6 pomegranate seeds so we have 6 months of winter.)
Other countries we visited also had pomegranate stories. North Cyprus, Israel and Tunisia. Links are below.
Bora Ayyildiz had other stories to share and traditions to explain.
“If you have bought or received something new, when you first get home you must drink something in 3 quick sips for longevity.” Longevity for the item or you or both; I wasn’t so clear about it. But I remembered to do it anyway. Bora told me about the pomegranate’s use to foretell the number of children a couple will have. And about sifta, the market tradition connected with the first sale of the day.
“In Turkey, after the marriage ceremony, the bride throws a pomegranate on the ground. The number of arils that fall out are believed to indicate how many children she will have. http://pomegranates.org/index.php?c=5 (In Bora’s version, the guests throw the pomegranate at the door of the new couple’s home.)
“The first sale of the day is called siftah and is considered lucky by traders. The customer should throw the money on the ground to show they are giving it freely and the trader should leave it there to show he isn’t greedy and grabbing. In practice it doesn’t stay there long but this is the tradition -as it was explained to me many years ago) http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g293969-i367-k1172875-Throwing_money_on_the_ground-Turkey.html (Bora demonstrated after the fact as I’m sure I was his first customer that day as I had watched him open the shop.)
(I remember the bracelet ladies on the beach at Subic Bay in the Philippines made a big deal of the first sale of the day too. But it also meant they had no change so I had to take more bracelets instead.)
And then there is the hair, chicken and headache superstition which I found while researching Turkish traditions.
•Hair in comb after combing is not thrown to street; if it is thrown, it may entangle in a leg of chicken, so you may have headache continuously.
http://www.turkishculture.org/lifestyles/turkish-culture-portal/superstitions-512.htm?type=1 So watch where you discard the hair in your comb!
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Bazaar Ayyildiz just near the old mosque at the end of Bar Street.
 
Bora Ayyildiz opening his shop for customers. Bora = tempest or hurricane Ayyildiz = ay (moon) + yildiz (star) Bora was born in California where his parents were graduate students at UCal Davis. Maybe that explains his name. I’ll have to return to ask. But what a cool name if I’ve translated it correctly.
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Bora showed me this book his parents had made while at Davis. They collected recipes from the other international graduate students. Also in the book is a photo of Baby Bora!
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I liked the drawing of the bottles with the Japanese recipe but definitely had to photograph the pecan pie recipe for Randal. Bora said his dad did most of the illustrations.
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I bought this pomegranate to model for my painting attempts. They came out no better than the ones I did in North Cyprus years ago. I cut it open to see if that would help me began to see it better to paint it better. I had thought about hanging it up to dry after seeing the ones in Bora’s shop and learning how to do it. But this one had a ding on one side so wouldn’t have worked too well and it was really too big. When they dry the seeds are loose so make a lovely sound when you move it. This one also had a clipped off crown so not so good for drying. I’m really too lazy to eat a pomegranate though Reverend Ken suggested that it be broken in a bowl of water and the seeds float to the top.
I squeezed it into juice which is quite good and needs no sugar. Lovely color too!
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Memento/Souvenir because souvenir just didn’t capture my feelings about the bracelet.
“A ‘memento’ is a keepsake of a person or event that has come and gone — for example, a locket once owned by a beloved aunt or the autograph of a celebrity you happened to meet.
A ‘souvenir’ is an item kept as a reminder of a place visited — a place that’s still there, even though you aren’t. Souvenirs are usually manufactured expressly for that purpose, such as that postcard you bought for yourself of Disneyland or a replica of the Statue of Liberty…”
From “What’s the Difference: A Compendium of Commonly Confused and Misused Words” by Jeff Robin (Ballantine Books, New York, 1994, Page 119). http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/29/messages/627.html
Pomegranate trivia
pomegranate (n.) Look up pomegranate at Dictionary.comc.1300, poumgarnet (a metathesized form), from Old French pome grenate (Modern French grenade) and directly from Medieval Latin pomum granatum, literally “apple with many seeds,” from pome “apple; fruit” (see Pomona) + grenate “having grains,” from Latin granata, fem. of granatus, from granum “grain” (see grain). The classical Latin name was malum granatum “seeded apple.” Italian form is granata, Spanish is granada. The -gra- spelling restored in English early 15c. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=pomegranate
Pomegranate is a very popular fruit all over the Middle East. Though it can’t be proven definitely, the fruit of the “Tree of Knowledge” (ets ha-daat [עֵץ הַדַּעַת]) mentioned in the biblical history of creation most probably was meant to be a pomegranate — though most Westerners would hardly believe it, it’s nowhere said to be an apple! Rather, the Hebrew text uses pəri [פְּרִי], an unspecific term meaning just “fruit”. There is also a parallel in Greek mythology, where the earth goddess Demeter [Δημήτηρ] lost her daughter Persephone [Περσεφόνη] to the underworld god Hades [ᾍδης] because of one single pomegranate grain the daughter had accepted. http://gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com/engl/Puni_gra.html
Pomegranate stories from the past…..
22 | April | 2011 | MY Doramac www.mydoramac.com/2011/04/22/ Apr 22, 2011 – Doramac will supposedly arrive April 28th rather than the first week in May so … Ann Monk Kidd’s Traveling with Pomegranates was the most …
Ay Trias Basiilica Flip Flop Mosaic and a Lost Puppy:.. www.mydoramac.com/ay-trias-basiilica-flip-flop-mosaic-and-a-lost-pup… Aug 14, 2011 – Here are the sandals….and the pomegranate tree mosaic to the left of the lower pair of sandals. … Pomegranates were used by the early Christian as a symbol of resurrection and everlasting life.
May | 2012 | MY Doramac www.mydoramac.com/2012/05/ Instantly DoraMac attracted attention and right after lunch I gave a boat tour ….. “Make pomegranates of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn around the hem of the robe …
The lighter side of Jerusalem | MY Doramac www.mydoramac.com/the-lighter-side-of-jerusalem/
May 26, 2012 – The hospital also has a sculpture garden and the pomegranate sculpture caught my eye. I seem to find them connected to every place I’ve …
Visit to Enna Part 1 of several | MY Doramac www.mydoramac.com/visit-to-enna-part-1-of-several/
Jun 21, 2013 – (While in Hades Persephone ate 6 pomegranate seeds so we have 6 months of winter.) My reasons for wanting to visit Enna? In the Netsel …
Tunisia 3 Belgacem Abderrazak Mosaic artist of Eljem | … www.mydoramac.com/tunisia-3-belgacem-abderrazak-mosaic-artist-of-el… Jul 18, 2013 – We spent a good deal of time looking at everything and finally settled on mosaic letters for DORAMAC and a small pomegranate mosaic for me.
