Friday the thirteenth. Not lucky in the weather but can’t really complain overall. A snuggle in day with soup and spaghetti sauce ready to reheat and tea and coffee and whiskey to warm up with. Lots of good reading material too.
And outside? Intermittent gale force winds and showers, some of them very heavy. Not cold, though. Eighteen degrees. More in the short sunny intervals.
Actually Friday the thirteenth isn’t much of thing in most Middle East countries. What is common is the charm for protection against the evil eye. Probably not taken really seriously - but then is the avoidance of the number thirteen taken seriously? Yes and no territory. My grandmother, seventy some years ago, moved to a small Canadian village and applied for a postal box. None available - unless, haha, she was willing to accept number thirteen. They were astonished when she was pleased to have it.
The charm, called nazar boncuğu, or evil eye bead in Turkish, is very old, much older than any of the religions in the area. There are textual references to it as far back as the Bronze Age some five thousand years ago. It’s common as a bracelet charm or pendant and J pointed out that the house recently built next to the orchard has a small one embedded high in the wall. And surprisingly, while most Christian churches dismiss them as a pagan superstition, there is one high on an arch in the Roman Catholic church in Larnaca.
Interestingly in Turkish culture there is a reluctance to praise or admire children in particular lest this attract the evil eye, tempt fate. I had wondered about this - assuming tradition and not actual belief - when a Turkish Cypriot friend posted a photo of his new grandchild. Had been about to say what a lovely looking baby he was when I noticed that all the other friends had avoided this and instead posted things like wishes for health.
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