Turkey Culture and Traditions

By | September 22, 2021

Although the infrastructure network has significantly improved in the last decades of the twentieth century, a large majority of the Turkish population lives in agricultural villages that are often almost isolated, where the weight of community traditions greatly affects the lives of individuals, despite an increasingly bitter conflict with the “western” suggestions induced for example by the diffusion of parabolic antennas and the use of satellite. And if the European influences are evident in the cities, in the villages time seems to have stopped for centuries and people continue to live according to patriarchal traditions. The köy (village) whose head is the muha, it is almost always composed of clay houses with flat roofs covered with litter. The buildings, inhabited by farmers and shepherds, range from a minimum of 20 to a maximum of 100 and consist of a large room, called buyuk, and an atrium, or sofa. In the most archaic architectural form they have no windows and light enters through the door or a large hole in the roof. Two-story buildings are quite rare. In each village there is a mosque with a minaret. Marriage is always a topic to be addressed between relatives. The wedding banquet takes place in the groom’s house, not in the presence of the bride and groom. The party then continues in the bride’s house where the groom will be led only in the evening, after the wedding, and the celebrant will join the hands of the two young people before leaving them alone. In Turkey, children are much loved; in the fifth year the boys are circumcised, usually after the threshing of the wheat. The Turks do not have the cult of the dead and the cemeteries are generally poor and rather simple. In the villages of the interior, or in the social classes less exposed to influenced by city culture, women still wear a wide shirt and trousers tight at the ankles and often cover their faces. Men usually dress Western. Visit ezinesports.com for beach life and culture in Turkey.

The spread of a more traditional Islamism has also reintroduced in the city, at all levels, a stricter dress code, which for women involves a handkerchief on the head and a large light-colored raincoat to cover the rest of the clothing. In craftsmanship, the processing of carpets, leather and metals stands out. In cities and villages, men love to meet in at all levels, a more rigid dress code, which for women involves a handkerchief on the head and a large raincoat of pale color to cover the rest of the clothing. In craftsmanship, the processing of carpets, leather and metals stands out. In cities and villages, men love to meet in at all levels, a more rigid dress code, which for women involves a handkerchief on the head and a large raincoat of pale color to cover the rest of the clothing. In craftsmanship, the processing of carpets, leather and metals stands out. In cities and villages, men love to meet in kahve (coffee), often centuries old, like mosques. In the kahve, where coffee is taken as a ritual, it is played at tavla, a kind of checkers with tablets and pawns. In general, however, we chat and even the use of smoking the hookah is disappearing, as well as the tradition of the hammam, the so-called Turkish bath, since the improvement in general economic conditions has led to the spread of baths in homes throughout almost the whole country, especially in the cities; the hammam remains as a ritual place for particular needs related to worship, or as an institution linked to the tourist flow. § Turkish cuisine is sober, even poor in agricultural areas or in the more mountainous interior. At the base of the diet there are rice, tomatoes and peppers and mutton. Famous y-ahni, mutton stew, kehap, roast mutton, bobrek, roast kidney. Many desserts, made with almonds, honey and sesame: the most famous are baklava, triangles of puff pastry filled with chopped walnuts or pistachios, and covered with a syrup of sugar and honey; the lukum, gelatin cubes in flavored honey to rose or stuffed with pistachios; the halva, a paste of sesame seeds and honey. Among the drinks, raks, a white and mucilaginous liqueur, are popular. The wine is excellent, the production is largely destined for western city restaurants, out of respect for the Islamic ban on alcoholic beverages. The largest of the Turkish holidays is the one that concludes Ramadan, the ritual month of fasting, with three days of banquets (the so-called Sugar Festival). March 22 is the first day of the Muslim year. The most popular entertainment is wrestling, which is not only sport but also entertainment, practiced everywhere, in the city and in the countryside. Before fighting, the wrestlers grease their bodies with yaglt (fat) and the bets are flourishing on the outcome of the matches.

Turkey Culture and Traditions