Turkey is a secular country and so is not as strict on this matter as some Muslim countries. Restaurants will continue to be open but will be less crowded. Snack bars and corner stores will still sell you a can of coke and a candy bar during the day. People tend not to eat on the move in public here, anyway. (For example, you do not see many Turks walking down the street with a sandwich or an apple in hand or drinking a cold drink.) During Ramadan this is even truer -- try to be discreet about your eating around others by not sitting out in the front of the restaurant or by eating as you walk down the street.Some Today’s Zaman readers have written and asked when Ramadan officially begins and how long it lasts.
Ramadan (Ramazan in Turkish) is the name of one of the months of the Muslim year. Because the Islamic calendar is 12 lunar months, each with 28 days, the dates of Ramadan changes each year when converted into our commonly used Gregorian calendar. It gets earlier and earlier each year. When I first came out to Turkey it was in early summer, and I have seen people fasting in the spring, the winter and now the early fall.
The month starts the moment the new phase of the moon is seen. You will often see the phrase “Onbir ayın sultanı” -- the sultan (king) of the (other) 11 months -- up in lights strung between two minarets, as Ramadan is the most holy and special month of the Muslim year.
Calendars are printed showing the exact time the fast begins in the morning and when it finishes in the evening as it changes day to day according to the sun. You can pick up one of these from most places where you shop, restaurants you frequent, etc. Firms print these to help their customers know the fasting schedule and to advertise their place of business. The one I picked up at OKKO in Erenköy shows the first day of Ramadan as Thursday, Sept. 13. According to this nifty calendar, if you live in this area and plan to keep the fast you should eat before 5:06 a.m. and you can break the fast at 7:28 p.m.
As we are in the second half of the year, with days getting shorter as winter approaches, the start of the fast gets later and later each morning and the end of the fast gets earlier and earlier each evening, by a few minutes.
The times, linked to sunrise and sunset, also vary from city to city across Turkey. İstanbul and İzmir in the west start the fast and finish it a few minutes after Trabzon and Diyarbakır in the east. If you watch TV near the time of sunset, you will see a ticker-tape running across the bottom of the screen showing the exact time for each of the towns in Turkey.
Next time we can explore a bit more about what to expect this month culturally.
But first of all, a question answered by Nasreddin Hodja in his inimitable style: Ramadan lasts for a lunar month. How many days?
Well the wise teacher and star of many Turkish jokes, Nasreddin Hodja, lived in the days before we had TVs or even printed calendars. As the village Hodja, it was his job to determine how many days were left in the month and when the month was finished.
In order to track which day of Ramadan it was, he put a stone in a cup. Every morning he put a stone into the cup without knowing that one of his friends had also put a handful of stones in it, to play a trick on him.
A few days later a man asked the Hodja, “Hodja Effendi, how many days have passed since we started Ramadan?”
The Hodja told him to wait for a minute, ran to his cup, counted the stones, came back and said:
“Up to and including today 45 days of Ramadan have passed.”
“But Hodja”, said the man, “there are only 28 days in this blessed and holy month. How is it possible for today to be the 45th?”
“Oh, be satisfied with that”, said the Hodja. “If you had counted the stones in the cup you would have seen that it is the 120th day of Ramadan.”
Note: Keep your questions and observations coming: I want to ensure this column is a help to you, Today’s Zaman’s readers. Email: c.mcpherson@todayszaman.com
