Artistic shows during Ramadan in Turkey

By Sa’ad Abdul-Majid, IOL Istanbul Correspondent

ISTANBUL, October 25 (IslamOnline.net) – All Turkish state-run and private radio and television stations and mass media have declared that the holy month of Ramadan would astronomically start Monday, October 27.

Opposition Happiness (Saadet) Party, headed by Necmettin Erbakan, has put congratulation posters in streets and squares in Istanbul.

The Turkish Turkmen newspaper had reported October 23, that preparations for the holy month of Ramadan have been completed.

The paper pointed out that 21 sub-municipalities have prepared daily programs for providing free breakfast for nearly 50,000 people, in addition to providing foodstuffs and supplies for about 150,000 needy people.

Firms, institutions and shops have started two weeks ago to distribute Ramadan calendar among the public, pointing out that Ramadan will astronomically start Monday.

In Democracy Square, the municipality set up a huge Ramadan tent to accommodate 15,000 Muslims, wherein breakfast will be provided. The same tent will witness cultural events that have become traditional in Istanbul during the past few years, like Ottoman music and some comic and recreational shows.

On the preparations of the municipality for the holy month, the Media Department has declared that 48 different areas in Istanbul will witness the provision of 30.000 breakfast meals for the people and the distribution of 120.000 loafs daily among the poor.

For the fifth year running, preparations have been made in Fash Khana garden to receive every night following Tarawih prayers several thousand citizens, as folkloric and musical bands make religious shows and supplications.

As for the western wall surrounding the mosque of Sultan Ahmed in Istanbul, open cafes have been prepared to receive people at night to offer them different drinks and water pipes that have become widespread in cafes, hotels and nightclubs of the Turkish towns during the past two years.

In the courtyard of the same mosque, sellers present their Turkish traditional products, sweets, perfumes, books, antiques, woolen socks and women’s hair ribbons.