RAMADAN

FESTIVAL

WHAT IS THE RAMADAN ?

The month of Ramadan is that in which was revealed the Quran

It is the month we fast. Due to our religion, during the month of Ramadan we don’t

eat or drink anything from dawn until sunset for 30 days.

We also keep our soul and body clean; don’t do ,speak or look something that is evil.

It is the time we mature ourselves.

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We help the people in need ; raise money and food for these people. We visit them or invite them to our houses.

There are Ramadan Tents during this time. People come together and have their dinner ( iftar ) together .

After iftar people can participate in some activities around with their family and can have some fun.

Hacivat and Karagöz is a traditional shadow play that is performed especially in Ramadan festivities.

Whirling Dervishes

Traditional Ottoman paste

Some other things you can see around

Sketches

In festivals as a tradition we should wear tidy and new clothes.

BUYING NEW CLOTHES

Therefore we do festival shopping and buy new clothes to wear during the festival.

Guests come to visit us during the festival, for this reason we clean our houses’ every nook and cranny.

CLEANING FOR FESTIVAL

At this period of time our houses are much

cleaner than usual

The day before the festival we go supermarket and buy various type of candies,optionally baklava and cologne for serving to our guests.

MARKET SHOPPING FOR FESTIVAL

PREPARATIONS AT HOME

Mothers prepare meals and beverages on the Eve day to keep them fresh.

First day...

Everyone wakes up early in the morning and wear new clothes and then men go to mosque (mosque is a place for worship) for eid prayer

Eid prayer is a worship which is done on the first

day’s morning.

After the eid prayer people in the mosque go out and everyone celebrate each other in the mosque courtyard. After that everybody goes homes.

When men arrive home the hand-kissing ceremony starts.

WHAT IS HAND-KISSING ?

Junior ones kiss the hands of senior ones.It is a sign of respect in our county.

Hand-kissing is made as follows

- Kiss the hand

- Put it on your forehead

*After the hand-kissing juniors take allowance as a festival tradition.

*It generally happens after the hand-kissing so juniors expect allowance form seniors.

After that we all have breakfast together.

VISITING CEMETERY

We visit to the graves of our relatives in the first morning.

We pray for them there, leave flowers and water soil on graves.

At the time of festival, children take their bags and they walk around door to door and collect various candies from their neighbourhood.

COLLECTING CANDY

Then kids gather in somewhere and show their bags to each other and have fun.They play games together.

We visit each other -at first our grandparents- during the festival.

VISITING

*During the festival we visit our neighbours,friends and relatives for festival greeting.

*We ask what people are doing and talk about how our lately life is going.

We serve food (such as baklava,candies,sarma,börek etc.) and drinks (such as tea,ayran,lemonade,coffee etc.)

to our guests.

These are what we serve.

If the weather is nice, we go on a picnic with our family .

This traditions are long-lasting and dateless and they keep us alive and connected.

This traditions are inherited from our ancestors and will be carried out by us.