Do Turks celebrate Christmas?

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â™¥ â˜¼ â™« Ibrahim â™« â˜¼ â™¥

Christians in Turkey celebrate their religious holidays, just like Jews in Turkey celebrate their religious holidays, and just like Muslims in Europe celebrate their religious holidays...Everybody is free to believe or not to believe a religion, and everybody is free to observe or not to observe the rules of his/her religion.

edit : @Hightech , you wrote :
"During the holiday season, shops throughout Turkey decorate their windows with trees, snowballs, red stockings, and statues and pictures of Saint Nicholas. Turks, who are Muslim, may seem like they are observing Christmas like the Christians. But they aren't celebrating Christmas, they are marking the New Year."
I consider it pretty ridiculous to follow a "fashion" or try to imitate the european habits, even for trade or marketing purposes...Do you think that Europeans and North-Americans honour the traditions of us Muslims as well? What's that ? Foolish mimetism? Sucking up?...C'mon, Turks DON'T HAVE to act like the allegedly "model" Europe...

xanthochroi

muslim turks celebrate new years instead of christmas if you know turks you already know that we're more relaxed about religion issues christmas trees,exchange gifts are due to a globalisation all the world you can see many decorated christmas trees in shopping malls,business centres and city squares in turkey

crazygirl158

Christians do! But muslim Turks such as myself celebrate the new year's! Everything is the same, the tree, the gifts, but it's five days later and does not have to do with religion. It is just to have fun I think, and I LOVE new year's!!! :)

atrak

Christians ? Sure .. we start the preparations already. We had so many job to do .. but turkish majority are Muslim's .. that's why they doesn't celebrate the XMas. They celebrate the new year ; and yeah they decorate the tress but not for XMas .. New Year.

Mica

Some do, most do not. Interestingly though if you go to Myra you will find the first St Nicholas, the original santa Claus comes from Turkey and is buried there

Tatiana

Well Christian turkish people yeah.

But the majority of turkey is muslim so it's rare... sort of like seeing muslim people celebrating muslim holidays in america

Opal K

I'm Turkish and people in Turkey don't say that there is a Santa Claus and all, but they celebrate the tree for new year, well the people who do decorate a tree do. I mean, poeple do know about christmas but the schools don't give days off for it. Eid ( Muslim Holiday) are more known.

Oekaki

No, they celebrate the New Year (December 31). Decorating a tree for New Year is a common tradition among the urban middle class, and it was probably picked up from the Western tradition of decorating Christmas trees. Santa Claus is another Christmas symbol that was picked up from the West and incorporated into New Year celebrations in Turkey.

Pious Muslims in Turkey are not happy with either symbol being used in New Year celebrations. (They are in fact not happy with New Year celebrations in any shape or form. They would like Turkey to revert to the Islamic calendar from the Gregorian one, officially adopted in 1925 as part of Ataturk's reforms.)

The funny thing is, decorating Christmas trees is actually a Pagan tradition that was condemned by Christian authorities for centuries. It is funny how religious rituals spread across cultures.

Joseph P

Only Christian Turkish people. Jewish Turkish, Islamic Turkish, & Hindu Turkish do not celebrate Christmas.

vcengen

1. Christmas is a religious holiday.
2. Turkey is a country and Turks are nation. This has nothing to do with religion. (It's something like asking "do Americans celebrate Ramadan?" ;))
3. Yes, most of the Turkish people are Muslims (99% or maybe more) but there are also Christian and Jew Turkish people as well.

Conclusion: Not ALL the Turks but the Christian ones celebrate Christmas. ;)

The most important thing here is that the people from every religion respect each other's religion in Turkey. (Radicals don't count, of course! :D)

Btw, Merry Christmas in advance.

Regards.

Volkan (Turkey)

Mercutio

yes. christians there are eastern orthadox. This happened because of a schism during the 4th crusade between the roman catholic chrich and them.

JokerTheFool

yes, they started (say last 10 to 12 years) to decorate a tree for new years eve but not for xmas.
but if you go to visit a church anywhere in turkey on xmas night, you will see half of the gathered people are muslims, especially in istanbul and in mardin cities and surroundings, as they believe in and accept that jesus christ was a prophet.
i wish you could see st.antonio church in istanbul on xmas nights! just crazy!
i could give you more info on it but that would be very historical and detailed, and i believe that your question doesn't mean to ask that much. i hope that this was helpful.

thethe

Well it's not a part of our culture and not listed in our beliefs but some Turks celebrate Christmas..

cymry3jones

St. Nicholas was from Turkey, Bishop of Myra, present day Antalya Province. He came from a rich family and on the 6th December he went secretly into the houses of poor people and left money or presents in their shoes.
If you see people decorating Christmas trees, then they are either succumbing to western habits, or they are Alevites (which is doubtful in a Turkish soap opera).
Now, people who originally come from Turkey often decorate trees and give their children Christmas presents here in Europe because when the children go back to school in January, they will be asked by other children and even teachers, 'What did you get for Christmas?' and 'What did you do for Christmas?'
Anyway, decorating trees around the time of the winter solstice is pagan. Jesus did NOT say, 'Kill trees for Christmas.'
Ibrahim is probably right. Christmas has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus. Even if Mohammed counted him as one of the prophets. Christmas has been commercialised.
Just look at the country of origin on your Christmas decorations; most of them come from China. The Chinese government persecutes Christians and Muslims, but that doesn't stop it cashing in on the festivities.

Lots of Smiles

Well obviously if you are Islam you will not celebrate christmas, but it is common to decorate a tree, jut for fun.
FUN FACT though... Saint Nicholas was originally from Turkey

Irmak

We celebrate the new year, not the birth of Jesus.

leylaanli

turkish citizens who are christian or orthodox do celebrate X-mas .
we the modern turks do new years with tree and gifts netc.

amada

Thumbs up for Oekaki
Only Christian Turks celebrate Christmas,but many Muslim families started to decorate trees for New Year, as they think it is a nice idea, with the lights on etc, it is a nice and happy way to wait for the coming year and to hope everything goes just happily.
The very religious Muslim Turks are not happy with that.
The actual fact is that the pine tree is a pagan symbol coming from Viking origins. The pine tree was considered sacred as it remained green and was a sign of immortality. When, those northern countries became Christian, some of their rituals merged with Christianity.
Also thumbs up for Joker The .. because people like to visit churches on Christmas night, not because they believe in Jesus Christ ( but they do believe He is a prophet- but Turkish Muslim don't believe He isGod , and not son of God ) but because they like the atmosphere and like the feeling that the new year is blessed.

Trotsky vs Kerensky-Ð´Ð°Ñ…Ñ Ð´ÑÐ¸

We don't celebrate Christmas. ("We" being Turks who are the followers of Islam) Of course you see people, Muslim Turks, decorating trees, it's for new year, not for Christmas. We don't sing hymns about the birth of Christ, we don't think Santa's in the malls here are secret missionaries and we don't decorate trees with a burning religious zest in our hearts.

tramp

Generally No We Dont BUT I have some friends(MÃ¼slÃ¼man) who decorate trees in Christmas (just for fun) and so do the Christians of TÃ¼rkiye.And I remember the Christmas time at my old university, everywhere was empty in campus and the decorations were completed.The beautiful side of Chrismass is the chocolates our teacher brought after their holidays :))

Helen W

98% Of turks don't celebrate christmas because they are muslim and only 2% of turks celebrate christmas because they are christian! I really don't know why you saw some turks decorating an x-mas tree lol... Maybe it was a stereotype of one of the Christian country's?

Miranda

not that i know of

Umur The Turk

Our people are muslim.

Aylin T

nopee

emo_chik

Yes, as a matter of fact my dad's one friend is Turkish and he and his girlfriend came over for Christmas or was it Easter? I don't know which one anymore, but they came over and it turned out she was a vegetarian funny things happen at my house! Like my older sister visited ans she put underwear on her head and over her pants and attacked the cat with the hair-dryer! She gave our mom coffee, which she made herself, and for the rest of the day was, Super Coffee Gal! It was hilarious! So, yes people in Turkey celebrate Christmas.

Karen

Cody

wow

Maniac Gorilla

no the turks do not they instead celebrate a holiday called forgivness u put up a tree and thank jesus for being born but instead of presents they get cards from people forgiving them under the tree so they believe when they woke up in the morining jesus stoped buy and put cards under the tree so they can be forgiven. i had to do alot of research on this question.

Manchurian Candidate

no, they are devote and peaseloving moslems so do not traffic in that kind of tripe

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