When I first came to Turkey more than 20 years ago, I experienced the sweet frenzy then known as Şeker Bayramı (sugar festival) for the first time. It marks the end of the fasting month of Ramazan. It would be logical to think the name Sugar Holiday comes from the amount of chocolate, baklava and…
Kadir Gecesi is thought to be the most important of the five holy nights in the Muslim calendar called kandil. According to the 97th chapter of the Koran and the traditions of the Prophet Mohammed, it is the night on which the first verses of the Koran were revealed to Mohammed. “We revealed the Koran on…
When I travelled through Turkey in 1996, Arabesque music was everywhere. On jukebox cafes, in crowded minibuses full of toothless farmers dressed in wool and smelling of sheep and damp, at bus stations and on stretched tapes in car stereo cassette players. Enormously popular, Arabesque could be heard everywhere but on the radio. As happened…
Turkey Earthquake 2023 – How you can help When does Berat Kandili fall? Berat Kandili is one of the five holy nights on the Muslim calendar called kandil, meaning candle. It is mübarek, a blessed night that falls on the 15th night of Şaban, which is the 8th month of the Muslim calendar. What is…
On the 23rd of April every year, the streets of Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and other large cities, towns and villages across Turkey will be full of local school children. Decked out in brightly clean school uniforms, with the neatest hair and straightest socks, they march proudly alongside fire trucks, police marching bands and other municipal…
It was with great pleasure that I opened the pages of reviewing Ozlem Warren’s new cookbook Ozlem’s Turkish Table: Recipes from My Homeland. She’s already well-known for her website of the same name and the cooking classes she gives all around the world. In this collection, Ozlem not only shares many of her favourite recipes…
Even though I don’t think of myself as superstitious, I don’t walk under ladders or step on cracks in the pavement. There’s no actual proof these things bring bad luck, but I think it best not to tempt fate, because you never know. Now, having lived in Turkey for such a long time I pay…
What type of music each person likes is an individual thing, usually based on where you grew up, the people you hung out with, and your life experiences. Whenever I play Turkish music for my friends who don’t know much about the country, they’re always surprised by the number of different styles and personalities that…
As most of my friends know, I love eating but I’m not so big on cooking. I have a lot of tried and true recipes that don’t require much thought to put together, and I’m usually reluctant to dip into cook books. Istanbul and Beyond: Exploring the Diverse Cuisines of Turkey is the exception. Reading…
Back in 1990 when I first visited the country, Turkish toilets, whether squat or what we think of as ‘normal’ but the Turks call Ala Franga, were a constant topic of discussion among tourists and travellers. There were plenty of toilets around, in mosques, restaurants, bus stations and even in free standing facilities in parks,…