Eid al-Fitr

What actually happens

Bayramlaşma — visiting elders to kiss their hand and receive a small gift. Zakat al-Fitr — the obligatory alms paid before the Eid prayer.

• 01Bayramlaşma — visiting elders to kiss their hand and receive a small gift.
• 02Zakat al-Fitr — the obligatory alms paid before the Eid prayer.
• 03New clothes — the bayramlık, worn for the first time on the morning itself.
• 04Cemeteries — the first stop of the day, after the prayer and before the eating.

Sound of the crowd

No instrumental tradition is prescribed. Ottoman fasıl ensembles play informally at home; the public soundtrack is drummers waking the neighbourhood for the pre-dawn meal during Ramadan, and silence on Eid morning.

How it survived

The observance is Qur'anic, and the two Eids were formalised in the early Islamic community of Medina. Because the calendar is lunar, Eid moves back roughly eleven days each solar year, which means it cycles through every season over about 33 years.