Kavya, a 4th grader in Denise Waters’ class at Norman Rockwell Elementary, asks, “What kinds of traditions have you seen Turkish people celebrate?”
Kavya, I’ve been to a couple wedding-related events, but I’ve written about those already. So I’ll describe another tradition I’ve seen celebrated here in Turkey: Seker Bayram (Candy Holiday).
Seker Bayram is a three-day holiday following the month-long Ramazan (aka Ramadan) fast. Each year it occurs a couple weeks earlier than it did the year before, so its date changes slightly year to year. This year Seker Bayram came in mid-August. In fact, it took place on the first Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday I was in Turkey.
An important part of Seker Bayram is visiting relatives, especially on the first of the holiday’s three days. Customary on these visits is to bring a box of candy, usually chocolates, to each of the houses one visits, so the whole day is spent traveling from house to house eating candy.
Especially important during these visits is to honor one’s elders by kissing the backs of their hands and touching their hands to one’s forehead.
During the Ramazan fast nothing can pass the lips from sunup to sundown, not even water or a toothbrush. So during Seker Bayram people are not only visiting relatives and kissing elders’ hands, they are reveling in the ability to eat and drink in broad daylight.
Since so many people are moving around at once, all modes of transport are clogged — roads, buses, subways, and trains.
On the first day of this year’s Seker Bayram I was in Istanbul moving from one friend’s house to another. For that move I used a combination of walking, subways, and trams.
The subway and tram cars were so packed some people couldn’t even get on and had to wait for the next train. I was wearing my backpack, which at the time weighed almost 50 pounds (23 kilos). With the heavy pack I might have moved a little slowly, but once I started moving, I had momentum and I was almost impossible to stop. Therefore, I was able to get on the trains whenever I wanted, as long as I didn’t mind, ahem, “ushering” a few people onto the trains with me.