Turkey
In Turkey the month of Ramadan is celebrated in a great joy and iftar dinners play a big part in this. In the big cities like Istanbul all of the restaurants offer special deals and set menus for iftar. Most of the set menus start with a soup or an appetiser plater called "Iftariye". It consists of dates, olives, cheese, pastırma, sujuk, Turkish Pide bread (which is a special bread only baked during the Ramadan) and various pastries called "börek". The main course consists of various Turkish foods, especially the Ottoman Palace Traditional Foods. The famous dessert called "güllaç" which is made of rose water is served in most of the places. Most of the fine-dining restaurants offer live musical performances of Ottoman classical music, Turkish music and Sufi music.
Most of the Ramadan celebration practices in Turkey have their roots in the Ottoman Empire traditions. Iftar is a fast breaking dinner and fasting people should break their fast just after the sun sets. At all of the minarets of the mosques, the minaret lightings called "kandil"s are lit, from sunset until the dawn and as soon as the sun sets a traditional "Ramadan Cannon" is fired from the highest hill in every city notifying people to start eating for the iftar.
In Istanbul, one of the more notable places to celebrate the iftar dinner is the Sultanahmet Square. Located near the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque) the Sultanahmet Square hosts many activities, like the mini restaurants opened during the month of Ramadan, special shows and traditional Ottoman theatrical shows.
The Tarawih prayer is mostly practised as 20 rekahs in Turkish mosques and between every 4 rekahs a hymn composed by the Turkish musician Buhurizade Itri is sung with all the people attending to the prayer. The hymn is basically a prayer to praise the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
As Ramadan is also the month of "alms giving" many people organise iftar dinners for the poor, students, guests and foreigners. People can find free and tasty Turkish food in most of the mosques.
During Ramadan, Turkish NGOs like Journalists and Authors Foundation started to organise Interfaith Dialogue Dinners to promote the "dialogue" between the "different". These high profile events have started a whole new era of organising big dinner parties by the NGOs in Turkey for the people from different cultures and understandings even if they are not Muslims. In the recent years you can find Turkish NGOs, such as the Interfaith Dialog Center, all over the world organising iftar dinners for inter-cultural and interfaith dialogue which helps promote the true understanding of the month of Ramadan.
Read more about this topic: Iftar
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