My PhD professor and mentor Roy Ascott, to whom I owe far more than just this one word is the one who coined the term "syncretismas" a few years ago when he sent out a syncretic season's greeting. It fits what goes on here, an essentially non-Christian society, to a tee and I have thus embraced it wholeheartedly in describing the occurrences around this time of year in what I think of (mostly quite fondly but sometimes also critically) as the land of the shapeshifter. Today I went to a cut-price hyper-market to stock up on household utensils, cleaning things and so forth. And then later I took a stroll around Kadikoy market. And since the preparations for "Syncretismas", which is celebrated here on New Year's Eve in the shape of a completely secular, non-religious "Christmas", are well under way I took the opportunity to document some of what I saw, to share with people who do not know my culture.
