As a household’s eldest woman prepares the ashure, she drops a coin into the large container.  Later, that coin is randomly included in one of the small containers of ashure and distributed to some family by chance.  People believe that the family receiving the coin will enjoy prosperity as a result.  Consequently, the ashure custom combines universal Islam with local tradition into a ritual complex with spiritual, creative, and practical functions.

In some Susurluk villages a bride would be ritually introduced to the hearth of her husband’s family on the very first day of marriage.  The new bride would be taken, by her husband’s mother, to the kitchen where she kneaded wheat-flour and water.  The bride then went to the hearth and pressed her right hand against the wall above it, leaving her handprint there.  Her subsequent interactions with the hearth continued to take on symbolic significance.  For instance, people said that when a new bride can revitalize the morning fire with one puff of air, the rest of her day will go well.  Those new brides who can generally restart the morning fires easily will be blessed with beautiful babies.

The hearth fire also emits interpretative messages.  Some villagers believe that the bluish glow of the fire means someone is speaking badly about the male head of the household.  Others claim that the different kinds of crackles produced by the fire correspond to the different kinds of conversations about the household that others are engaged in.  The hearth fire also plays a role in many folk cures and protects the family against the evil eye.

Because the hearth fire is associated so intimately with the family, it should never be put out intentionally.  Throwing water on the fire is wrong; it symbolizes the family’s extinction.  People usually cover the hot coals with ashes until they are needed again.  An elderly woman told me that some immigrant women from the Balkans brought their hearth coals with them to Turkey to ensure their families’ survival.

The home also contains other special parts, such as the rafters from which items are hung to cure ill residents or to protect the home from the evil eye; the walls in which nail clippings are wrapped and stored to protect their owners from sorcery and to be preserved until Judgment Day, when they will be recollected; and the entrance, especially the threshold, which marks the dividing line between the safety of the home and the dangers of the outside, spirit world.  One should not linger in the doorway but should pass through it, saying destur (by your leave) and bismillah (in the name of Allah) as protection, because one may collide with spirits found there, especially at night.