People back home in Malaysia often ask me, “How is it fasting during Ramadan in İstanbul?” My answer is always,
“It depends on who you are with and where you go to.”
Observant Muslims -- be it in Malaysia, İstanbul or anywhere else in the world -- fast from dawn to sunset. However, I was not prepared for what I saw in my first Ramadan in İstanbul. Being used to the environment in Malaysia, where Muslims in general fast and those who don’t never eat openly in public, I found it shocking to see a large number of Muslims openly eat and drink without reservation -- as if the holy month means nothing to them. They go on with their lives, eating and drinking in public without respect for those who fast, believing that they have the freedom to do as they please and that no one can say anything about it. Such things used to make me shudder with sadness and, though I am now used to the environment, I still feel extremely uncomfortable and sad inside.
It displays the cold fact of how a certain group of people perceive Ramadan negatively, which is sad since I remember clearly how my non-Muslim friends back home always tried their best not to eat or drink in front of their fasting Muslim friends as a sign of respect. Nonetheless, this does not represent the whole society, as there are also many Muslims in İstanbul and Turkey in general who fast during the month.
Fasting or not, I find the Turks are rich in their social interactions. If you look at the iftars (fast-breaking dinners), people race to invite their friends and families to their homes. It is the time when everyone gets together to enjoy each other’s company while lavishing guests with food. I remember clearly my first iftar here at my late mother-in-law’s home. The long table was full with rich breakfast foods -- pide (flat bread), jams, sucuk, börek, olives, eggs and more. Just name it, it was there. I ate the breakfast with relish until I was full and then my mother-in-law asked me if I wanted soup. It turned out that was only the beginning of dinner, not to mention dessert. No one in their right mind living here can lose weight during iftar and I think any Turk can vouch for that. The fantastic, mouthwatering and delicious food is wonderfully evil for the waistline.
What I also love about this place is the fact that almost everywhere you can find big tents, called “iftar çadırı,” where the less well-off come and eat free cooked meals for their iftar. It is normally provided by many organizations, backed by the people, to provide food for the poor since Ramadan, after all, is about giving and sharing. And, yes, Turks are givers and sharers. There is no doubt about it.
And after all these years, I find that the Sultanahmet (Blue Mosque) and Eyüp Sultan areas are the two places to go to get a feel for how festive this month is. In both places people basically flock by thousands for iftar. Seen from the air, they are like small ants in many colors, all waiting to have iftar in the area surrounding both mosques, as well as praying and enjoying the fun, the glitter, the crowd and the food sold at different food stalls there. In the Sultanahmet area, for example, a book fair is organized each year and books by different publishers can be found and purchased at discounted prices.
My family and I for example, have made it a tradition to go to visit Eyüp Sultan at least once a year in Ramadan. I find it to be the best place for us to expose the kids to what Ramadan is all about. The moment you enter the area, you feel soothed by the fact that unless they are small children, you don’t see people openly eating and drinking. These people observe their fasting and those who don’t (or can’t) fast, respect those who do. Hundreds of people bring their own mats or newspapers and their own food from home and sit outside the mosque to break their fasts together with their loved ones. And for those who don’t have their own food, there are always restaurants eager to please their customers. You can also see people lining up at the iftar tents to get their food for free. It is truly soothing to see the faces of fasting people, though exhausted, eagerly waiting to break their fast at a holy mosque, especially in the midst of the Quran recitation read by the imam. This is what Ramadan is. This is what you want your family members to experience, because Ramadan is not just about going hungry and thirsty. It is a festival in its own right.
Not far from Eyüp Sultan mosque, there is also a feshane, a factory established to produce clothing and fez for the Ottoman army by the imperial decree of Sultan Abdülmecid in the year 1839. Now the building is abandoned and hosts fairs, conferences and exhibitions. When we went there after iftar a few days ago, it was quite a happening place. Inside there are fairs and religious music concerts to celebrate the holy month. There is also a fancy restaurant there. Outside, the luna park awaits the kids to provide entertainment. There are also food stalls waiting for customers who want to eat while watching the lively happenings around them as they sip their Turkish tea under the lovely moon, with a view of the Golden Horn adding the perfect romantic touch amidst the crowd. And to add to the romance (even when you are with your children) a 20-minute tour along the Golden Horn in a Sultan Kayık (a long boat similar to the ones used by the sultans) for YTL 5 is the ultimate conclusion to a wonderful festival for us parents to offer the kids. And the fact that the Eyüp Municipality has provided the Mehtar band performances adds a special feeling so that, by the end of the night, when it was time to go home, I said to myself,
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