Official holidays
January 1: New Year’s Day
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National holidays
April 23: National Sovereignty and Children’s Day (anniversary of the establishment of Turkish Grand National Assembly in 1920)
May 1: Labour and Solidarity Day (since 2009)
May 19: Atatürk Commemoration and Youth & Sports Day (the arrival of Atatürk in Samsun in 1919, and the beginning of the War of Independence)
July 15: Democracy and Freedom Day (since coup tentative of 2016)
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Religious holidays
Ramazan Bayrami: Three-day festival when sweets are eaten to celebrate the end of the fast of Ramadan month. Also known as “Seker (sweets) Bayrami” since it’s customary to offer candies to family members and friends that are visiting.
Kurban Bayrami: Four-day festival when sacrificial sheep or cow are slaughtered and their meat distributed to the poor.
The dates of these religious festivals change according to the Islamic calendar and thus occur 10-11 days (exact difference between Gregorian and Lunar calendars is 10 days and 21 hrs) earlier each year. According to this;
• Ramazan Bayrami (or Seker Bayrami) in 2020 is celebrated on 24-25-26 May, in 2021 will be on 13-14-15 May.
• Kurban Bayrami (Sacrifice holiday) in 2019 is celebrated on 11-12-13-14 August, in 2020 will be on 31 July – 1-2-3 August, in 2021 will be on 20-21-22-23 July.
This religious holiday was celebrated on 31 December 2006 – 1-2-3 January 2007 and on 20-21-22-23 December 2007. As you can notice, there were two Kurban Bayrami dates in 2007, it’s not a mistake but it happens every 32 years. Same with Ramazan Bayrami but it happened in 2000 and won’t happen again until 2032.
