VINTAGE SUITCASE
THE ORIGIN OF TURKISH PEOPLE
• Turkish people (Turkish: Türkler) are a Turkic ethnic
group speaking Turkish and primarily living in Republic
of Turkey, and in the former lands of the Ottoman
Empire where Turkish minorities have been
established. Indeed, the Turkish minorities are the
second largest ethnic groups in Bulgaria and Cyprus. In
addition, as a result of modern migration, a Turkish
Diaspora has been established, particularly
in WesternEurope, where large communities have been
formed in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the
Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
There are also Turkish communities living in Australia,
the former Soviet Union and North America.
Religion in Turkey
• Islam is the largest religion of Turkey with 99.8% of the
population being registered as Muslim, while other
sources give a little lower estimate of 96.4%. Most
Muslims in Turkey are Sunnis forming about 72%,
and Alevis form about 25% of the Muslim
population. There is also a Twelver Shia community
which forms about 3-5% of the Muslim population.
Among Sunni Muslim presence in Turkey there is a
small but considerable minority of Muslims with Sufi
heritage and affiliation. Christians (Oriental
Orthodoxy, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic)
and Jews (Sephardi), who comprise the non-Muslim
religious population, make up 0.2% of the total.
• As of today, there are thousands of historical
mosques throughout the country which are still
active. Notable mosques built in the Seljuk and
Ottoman periods include the Sultan Ahmed
Mosque and Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul,
the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, the Yeşil
Mosque in Bursa, the Alaeddin
Mosque and Mevlana Mosque in Konya, and
the Great Mosque in Divriği, among many others.
Large mosques built in the Republic of Turkey
period include the Kocatepe Mosque in Ankara
and the Sabancı Mosque in Adana.
Other religions
• The remainder of the population belongs to
other faiths,
particularly Christian denominations (Greek
Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Syriac
Orthodox,Catholic and Protestant),
and Judaism (mostly Sephardi Jews, and a
smaller Ashkenazi community.) Turkey has
numerous important sites for
Judaism and Christianity, being one of the
birth places of the latter.
• There are many churches and synagogues throughout
the country, such as the Church of St. George, the St.
Anthony of Padua Church, theCathedral of the Holy
Spirit, the Neve Shalom Synagogue, the Italian
Synagogue and the Ashkenazi Synagogue in Istanbul.
There are also many historical churches which have
been transformed into mosques or museums, such as
the Hagia Sophia and Chora Church in Istanbul,
the Church of St. Peter in Antakya, and the Church of
St. Nicholas in Myra, among many others. There are
probably 10 to 20 thousand Bahá'ís, and around a
hundred Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assemblies in Turkey.
•
Secularism
• Turkey has a secular constitution, with no
official state religion. The strong tradition
of secularism in Turkey is essentially similar to
the French model of laïcité. The constitution
recognizes the freedom of religion for
individuals.
• Despite its official secularism, the Turkish
government includes the state agency of
the Presidency of Religious
Affairs (Turkish: Diyanet İşleri
Başkanlığı), whose purpose is stated by law to
"to execute the works concerning the beliefs,
worship, and ethics of Islam, enlighten the
public about their religion, and administer the
sacred worshiping places". .
Weddings in Turkey: Colorful, Traditional and Lavish
• Gold, banknotes and the color red are the
dominating elements of a Turkish wedding
ceremony. No expenses are spared to make
the occasion special for bride, groom and
honored guests. A lavish and cheerful
atmosphere is characteristic of the unique
wedding ceremonies of Turkey.
• A traditional Turkish wedding consists of several
different parts such as going to bride’s house, the
engagement, the henna night and the wedding
ceremony. There may be some differences from
region to region (for example in the eastern
region the wedding lasts 40 days and 40 nights or
in another region the henna night takes more
than one night ). The Turkish wedding ceremony
also has some similarities with the Christian
wedding such as the bride and the groom being
introduced to each others’ families.
• When a man and a woman decide to get married, the very
first thing they have to do is to arrange for the families to
meet. It is a custom for the groom’s family to go to the
bride’s house to ask for the girl’s hand in marriage for their
son. Before visiting the bride’s house, they buy a large box
of chocolates and a well arranged bouquet of flowers. The
meaning of the chocolates is “let’s eat sweet and then talk
sweet”. The two families start a polite conversation in order
to get to know about each other, and while they are
chatting the bride offers Turkish coffee to the members of
each family. She then presents the chocolates brought by
the groom’s family, and the polite conversation is carried on
to the climax of the ultimate intention of the visit.
• The bride and groom-to-be kiss the hands of
the eldest members of each family, and they
begin to talk about the engagement, henna
night and the wedding date
• The engagement itself is usually carried out by the bride’s family,
whether at her home or at some outside location. On the
engagement day the members of each family and the friends of the
couple go to the arranged place of the engagement. The groom’s
family are responsible for buying the gold band which will be placed
on the ring finger of the right hand and also either a solitaire or a
three, five or seven stone diamond ring, a gold or diamond set
(comprising of necklace, earrings, and bracelet), and close relatives
such as aunts and uncles will also give a gold bracelet or some other
types of jewelry as seen to be appropriate. An appointed elder
member of the family will make a short speech as each gold band is
placed on the fingers of the couple. The rings are connected by a
red ribbon, and when the rings are placed the red ribbon is cut,
making the engagement official.
• The most important part of the Turkish traditional wedding is the
“Kına Gecesi”, or Henna Night. This night belongs to the bride, so
only the women come to the bride’s house that night. The bride-tobe is sat on a chair with a veil over her head (usually red) to hide
the bride’s tears. Next, young girls with candles set in henna-filled
dishes in their hands walk around the bride and sing traditional
songs. When the songs end, the prayers start. After the prayers are
completed a female member of the family prepares the henna and
puts some of it into each palm of the bride. The bride closes her
hand and doesn’t open it until the mother-in-law places a gold coin
in her palm. This represents wealth or luck or sometimes both.
Afterwards both hands are covered and tied with a red cloth-glove
and the celebrations begin. Everyone eats the home-made meals,
and afterward all dance together and have fun. This is the last night
of that bride will stay with her family and enjoy her single life.
• The wedding day itself, as everywhere, is usually
quite chaotic. The bride wears a bright wedding
dress and veil, adorned with a red sash around
her waist and red bows on her dress or in her
hair. The bridal veil is also important, but
nowadays, traditions are changing and even the
traditional marriages have brides wearing dresses
without bridal veils. Bright colors are worn
because they reflect joy and happiness. The
groom is dressed in a tuxedo or dark suit.
• During the ceremony the couple signs the
marriage registration book in front of the
mayor or an official acting on behalf of the
mayor. As soon as the book is signed, the
bride and groom race each other to step upon
the top of his or her spouses shoe, which
brings immediate cheers from each side of the
family. The winner of the race is believed to be
the person who will dominate the family from
that moment on.
• The wedding dinner, which consists of many
courses, follows. During the meal, traditional
music is played, and often, professional
dancers perform. An important part of the
celebration is the 'Dance of the Fathers',
where the fathers of the bride and groom
dance around each other and are equally
showered with banknotes and gold coins.
Finally, the bride and groom cut the wedding cake.
BIRTH TRADITIONS
• Birth, the first of the turning points in life, is
almost always regarded as a happy event, in
Turkey as in the rest of the world.
After birth:
• Practices after birth can be grouped as
regarding;
• The child’s umbilical cord and placenta,
• Accouchement,
• The forty-day threshold,
• The forty-day precautions.
Child’s Umbilical Cord;
• There is a belief that the food and drink a pregnant woman
consumes, and the people, animals and things she looks at all affect
the child, the same belief applies to the relation between the child
and the umbilical cord and placenta. That is why the child’s
umbilical cord cannot be thrown away haphazardly without, it is
believed, influencing the infant’s future, employment and life.
• In the light of this belief, the umbilical cord;
• is buried in the courtyard of a mosque. (For the child to be a devout
person)
• is thrown over a wall or into a school garden. (For the child to be an
educated person)
• is buried in a stable. (For the child to be an animal lover)
• is thrown into water. (For the child to search for his/her destiny
elsewhere)
Accouchement;
• Women who have just given birth are referred to as
“loğusa”, “lohsa”, “emzikli”, “nevse”, or “kırklı”. The length
of time a woman who has just had a baby will stay confined
to bed depends on her own physiological condition, the
question of whether the birth was a difficult or an easy one,
climate, environmental considerations and how much the
woman is loved by her family.
• It is a common belief in Anatolia that women are under the
influence of various supernatural forces during
accouchement. “The grave of woman in accouchement is
open for forty days” (the accouchement period is believed
to last forty days), is a saying commonly used in traditional
areas that supports this belief.
The forty-day threshold belief;
• People in Anatolia call any sickness experienced
by the mother or the baby and any failure to
regain health within 40 days of giving birth as
“the falling forties” or some similar name such as
name; “kırk basması”, “kırk düşmesi”, “loğusa
basması”, and It is a common belief that a
number of living things and objects will harm
mother and newborn baby in the forty-day
period after birth. Practices and measures to
prevent the ‘falling forties’ are very common.
Forty-day precautions;
• Washing the mother and child within 40 days
of birth to prevent them falling ill within that
period is known as “making the forties”. It is
commonly referred to as “kırklama”, or “kırk
dökme” and “kırk çıkarma”.
• “Making the forties” is still a common practice
today as in the past among those customs and
practices related to birth.
THANK YOU 