It’s almost 2016 and Turkey is gearing up for some serious celebrations tonight.
Turks love to party – especially when the raki is flowing, there’s a good spread of food on the table and a little live music to get people on their feet. Although as a predominantly Muslim country Turkey doesn’t tend to celebrate Christmas, Turks do dress trees with all the tinsel and trimmings, give presents to family and friends and normally cook up a roast bird at New Year.
New Year in Turkey
Turkey only started celebrating New Year according to the Gregorian calendar on December 31st, back in 1926. Prior to that, under Ottoman rule, they used the Rumi Takvim or the Islamic solar based calendar. For the first few years it was pretty much a non-event, the New Year celebration only really got going after 1935 when the government declared January 1st an official holiday and gave Turks a well deserved day off work. To honour the celebration, many started adopting some of the popular western traditions of Christmas and Thanksgiving. Christmas trees started to appear, Father Christmas, known here in Turkey as Noel Baba, gave the celebration a little magic, and presents were brought and given to kids and loved ones. A roast turkey or chicken was cooked up and many restaurants and bars threw impressive News Years Eve celebrations with music and entertainment.
New Year in Fethiye
If you fancy celebrating the New Year out and about in Fethiye this evening, get your skates on and book yourselves a table if you are planning to head anywhere fancy! Many of the restaurants, bars and hotels we spoke to yesterday are already booked up. Most have tasty set menus and live entertainment. A few of the hotels are running special offers that include the music, meal and accommodation, and most of the bars have bands and buffets. By all accounts, despite the cold weather front forecast for the next few days (down to – 4!), it sounds like Fethiye will see in 2016 in style.
A Happy New Year from Oceanwide Properties
Oceanwide Properties would once again like to thank everyone for their support over the past twelve months. We wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous 2016 and look forward to seeing you in the New Year.
