Family Bayram in Bursa

Around the Black Sea (2010),Turkey | November 12, 2010 / by: Anna Alboth

Ramazan Bayramı is a three-day Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. We were lucky enough to spend those days with a truly lovely Turkish family.

Our dear friend from Ankara took us with her to spend one of the most important time for Turkish people with her family. Three days between those very warm, hospital people will stay in our memory. What do you do during those days? First of all, you visit all the loved ones: relatives, neighbors and friends. You wash your hands with funny perfumes and then you eat sweets. And eat and eat! What is regarded as especially important to honor elderly citizens by kissing their right hand and placing it on one’s forehead while wishing them Bayram greetings.

And all of them love children. Hanna, as a small blond one, was just changing arms from one to another. “Masha’Allah”, “Masha’Allah” – we heard on the streets all the time. The closest English translation is “God has willed it”. It’s used to expresses appreciation, joy, praise and thankfulness for a person (Hanna, in this case).

The strongest sign of influence of Turkish culture on our Hanna is that during next days instead of calling me “mama” (in Polish or German), she was calling me “anne” (mama in Turkish!). Such a basic word!

We spent again very calm time in Bursa, which is extremely nice place. With a soul but without many tourists, very green. We walked through mosques, tombs, caravanserais, silk market. We tried best lemonade ever (home made, we promised each other to try to do it at home!).

Just half an hour away from Bursa is the Sea of Marmara, water connecting our Black Sea with Aegean and Mediterranean Sea. So here we finished our way from east to west of Turkey, from border with Georgia and Armenia, to the end of the land.

Mudanya, city at the seaside is very small but still attracts a lot of people during Bayram. No way to swim there plus high waves but fish and ice cream are a good reason to have a walk along the sea.

Text by: Anna Alboth
Tags: / Bayram, Bursa, Mudanya, traveling, Turkey