One of Our Common Traditions: Bayram Visits &  Kissing on the Hand

(Prepared by Şule & Yaren & Nazlı

                    from Tes-Is Adapazarı Anatolian High School  /Senem Sönmez)

  It is a common tradition in Turkey to visit each other during ”bayram”.

Bayram  is called as “festival /feast” in English.We have two religious  feasts.Ramadan Feast is celebrated at the end of the Ramadan.It lasts  3 days.Approximately two months later The Feast of Sacrifice is celebrated.It lasts 4 days.On these days relatives/friends visit each other,  sons /daughters kiss their parents on the hand and sometimes children /teenagers kiss  close  friends/relatives on the hand ,especially if they are old,  in order to show respect. Young people get pocket money  or presents like sweets,chocolate etc.

  In the previous years  children around the neighbourhood would  ring the doorbell, celebrate bayram, kiss elderly on the hand and after that  cologne is poured inside their hand and they were given sweets/chocolate or pocket money.Nowadays, especially after pandemic we could rarely see it.

  Cologne, chocolate, candies, baklava, coffee, ayran are some of the traditional bayram habits.(Here we are talking in general.In Turkey, there are so many bayram traditions  and traditional bayram food in each region.)