Booko
Deviled Hen
For Ayyam-i-Ha, about every other year I cook a dinner for my Baha'i community, with cuisine all from Iran through the Middle East to N. Africa. The usual menu is something like:
I have a friend who decorates with Peacocks.
We put out really cool candles in keeping with the red&white theme, as well as the lace tablecloth of course.
Why red & white, you ask? Well, one night when Feast was over and we were down to just 3 people hanging out at 1am talking, I jokingly asked the question of a friend of mine: So, what are the traditional colors for Ayyam-i-Ha anyway? He thought about it for a moment and replied: Red & white.
It sort of made sense, and so it stuck with us. The only thing red & white is used for is Valentines day, but since Ayyam-i-Ha is after Valentine's Day (late February) there's no conflict. So many other good color combinations are taken by other religions' holy days or national celebrations. And then, it's sort of a veiled reference to the whole "Crimson Ark" thing, so it works on that level too.
For presents, we try not to get carried away with that, but we exchange gifts with some friends, and within the family we each open a small gift each day during the holiday. It's 4 days long, except in leap years it's 5 days. Gifts for the kids range to a book or game, or smaller things like really really good chocolate.
The nicest thing about celebrating our gift-giving season is the Christmas crowds are gone, the sales are on, and everything is available again, and usually marked down. Woot!
Our community often has a party with games, dancing, music, and whatever anyone hosting wants to add in with it.
Sometimes we pick a restaurant to eat out at on one day, and reserve space and order a special menu if there are enough of us. For those who are strapped for cash, the LSA is always ready to provide assistance, because no one should be left out of a celebration.
There's a pretty steady group of people who make a point of volunteering at the local Food Bank at this time, and there's another group that volunteers later during the Fast. It's hard to get many people "in the spirit" during February. Most people here think of such things during Thanksgiving and on into Christmas, and after that it's off the radar, so it's a great time for us to show up en masses to help out.
Well, that's the short version of what we typically do for Ayyam-i-Ha.
- homemade non-i-Barbari bread and pita
- dips like hummus, babaganous, and "fool" (fava beans), yogurt cheese & cucumber
- salads like tabouli, choriatiki (Greek salad), fatoush
- appetizers like falafel
- veggies like "Fainting Imam" (eggplant, onions and bell peppers, roasted), fasoulakia (green beans in a tomato/onion sauce)
- meat dishes like kibbe (a kind of meatloaf cut into cubes), roast leg of lamb (well done Middle Eastern style, not medium rare like the Europeans do it), fesenjam (pomegranate-walnut chicken)
- desserts like almond-stuffed dates, apricot balls and the ever-popular baklava.
I have a friend who decorates with Peacocks.We put out really cool candles in keeping with the red&white theme, as well as the lace tablecloth of course.
Why red & white, you ask? Well, one night when Feast was over and we were down to just 3 people hanging out at 1am talking, I jokingly asked the question of a friend of mine: So, what are the traditional colors for Ayyam-i-Ha anyway? He thought about it for a moment and replied: Red & white.
It sort of made sense, and so it stuck with us. The only thing red & white is used for is Valentines day, but since Ayyam-i-Ha is after Valentine's Day (late February) there's no conflict. So many other good color combinations are taken by other religions' holy days or national celebrations. And then, it's sort of a veiled reference to the whole "Crimson Ark" thing, so it works on that level too.
For presents, we try not to get carried away with that, but we exchange gifts with some friends, and within the family we each open a small gift each day during the holiday. It's 4 days long, except in leap years it's 5 days. Gifts for the kids range to a book or game, or smaller things like really really good chocolate.
The nicest thing about celebrating our gift-giving season is the Christmas crowds are gone, the sales are on, and everything is available again, and usually marked down. Woot!
Our community often has a party with games, dancing, music, and whatever anyone hosting wants to add in with it.
Sometimes we pick a restaurant to eat out at on one day, and reserve space and order a special menu if there are enough of us. For those who are strapped for cash, the LSA is always ready to provide assistance, because no one should be left out of a celebration.
There's a pretty steady group of people who make a point of volunteering at the local Food Bank at this time, and there's another group that volunteers later during the Fast. It's hard to get many people "in the spirit" during February. Most people here think of such things during Thanksgiving and on into Christmas, and after that it's off the radar, so it's a great time for us to show up en masses to help out.
Well, that's the short version of what we typically do for Ayyam-i-Ha.
