It is a month of tradition, family get-togethers, and big long dinners. For Muslims, Ramadan is also a month of refraining from food and drink during the day, from sunup till sundown. Yet, for Turkey’s expats, it is a time to observe Turkey’s traditions, enjoy Turkish generosity, respect those who are hungry and thirsty during the day, and, sometimes, be very careful in traffic in order to avoid any car crashes
It is a month of fasting from sunup till sundown for practicing Muslims. Yet, for the expats living in Turkey, the month of Ramadan is a month to observe the traditions of the country.
They try not to eat in public during the day out of respect for fasting Muslims, some try to fast for a couple of days to participate in the community, and they often liken the time to Christmas due to its communal and traditional feel.
“I remember the first time I fasted. I was working for a French pharmaceutical company and I fasted for a couple of days. Religious and not religious people fasted because it was a communal thing. We would get together and have iftar [breaking of the fast at sundown],” said American native Alexander Dawe, adding that he did not find fasting difficult.
Dawe said he was considering not drinking alcohol during the month of Ramadan like one Turkish-American friend. “He does not drink during Ramadan for detox reasons and not for religious reasons,” he said.
Feelings of community take precedence over religious feelings in Turkey, Dawe believes. “It reminds me of Christmas. Just like that, it is a family experience. People talk about what Ramadan was like while they were growing up. This is something we do for Christmas,” he said.
For winemaker Daniel O’Donnell, Ramadan has presented a challenge. “In the three years I have been here, Ramadan has been during the vintage period. I work from sunup to sundown,” he said. He added that the difficulty was in the precautions to be taken to accommodate the vintage workers that observed Ramadan and fasted. “I do not judge but it has been difficult,” O’Donnell said. “It gets a lot more difficult during summer because you cannot drink water.”
But one thing that struck O’Donnell is the hospitality of Turkish people. “I do not observe Ramadan. Although they fast, the people have been kind and made sure I ate. Most people I met did not judge me negatively that I did not observe Ramadan,” he said.
Regional differences
The winemaker has also observed some differences between how this religious period has been practiced between Western and Eastern Turkey. “In Western Turkey, Ramadan [and fasting or not fasting] is not a big issue at all, also because of the field I work in. Fifty percent of the people I met in Western Turkey do not observe Ramadan,” said O’Donnell.
He said the situation in Eastern Turkey was far different. “In Diyarbakır, it is a unique experience for me that 100 percent of the people I work with in the wine business do fast. They do not taste the wine even when it is not Ramadan,” said the winemaker.
However, it is the bayram, the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, rather than Ramadan itself that presents a challenge for O’Donnell’s business. “The grapes need to be picked on a specific day. But I have to plan around those days of festivities because there is no one to be found to work on those days,” he said. “The same would have happened if the vintage was around Christmas in North America.”
For French native Florent Descombre, who spends most of his time in the Şişli, Nişantaşı, and Taksim districts, not much changes during Ramadan. “There is not much difference. Maybe you see less people in restaurants,” he said. Descombre has noticed that some Turkish people, including some of his friends, do not drink alcohol during Ramadan. He does not think this makes sense. “They drink all year around but they do not drink for only a couple of weeks. I think they do it to feel good morally,” he said.
Descombre respects those around him who fast. “If I am next to someone that I think is fasting, I do not light up a cigarette. Also I do not eat a sandwich in the streets. It is a Muslim country and I respect the Muslim culture,” he said.
Affects business
“I have been here so long, it has become a part of normal life,” said Swedish consultant Niclas Simonsson, who has been living in Turkey for more than 10 years. He said none of his Turkish friends observe Ramadan although most of his business relations do. “It slows down business activities because people are running off to iftar. It has affected work less in the last few years because iftar has been around 7-8 o’clock [in the evening,]” he said.
“You can definitely see it in the traffic. The ratio of car accidents increase,” said Simonsson, who had missed a flight to Antalya a few years back due to a car accident on the highway to the airport. “There were two car accidents on the highway because people were driving hurriedly to make it to iftar on time,” he said.
Simonsson’s job takes him to many cities outside Istanbul. “The ratio of people fasting outside of Istanbul is more. But then in Istanbul, I hang around in my own environment, where people do not fast. When I go out, I go to dinner in Nişantaşı or Etiler, not to Gaziosmanpaşa. When I go to Konya, for example, there is a higher ratio of people fasting. But this ratio would also be the same in Gaziosmanpaşa,” he said.
Like, O’Donnell, Simonsson has not encountered a problem because he does not fast. “It has not been a problem. When in Konya, people knew I did not fast and offered lunch,” he said.
Shocked by the drummer
American native Melanie Şahlan moved to Turkey after she married a Turkish man. “The first year was strange. I knew the word Ramadan but I did not realize it was so wide spread. I realized that at restaurants, even if you did not fast, it was rude to start eating before iftar. I need to be careful and respectful,” she said.
She and her husband first lived in Istanbul when they moved to Turkey. “There was a drummer in our neighborhood, waking people up at Sahur [the pre-dawn meal]. The first night, when I heard the drum, I had no idea what was going on,” said Şahlan.
The drummer surprised Şahlan once again when he came knocking on her door asking for money for “his services.” “It was a bit of a shock,” said Şahlan, who did not speak Turkish well at that point. “I had no idea what they wanted. I must have looked confused and just said ‘thank you, thank you,’” she said.
“It affects everything, like taxi drivers. I think they get a bit crazier. I feel sorry for them because it must be very difficult, especially this month because it is so hot,” she said.
