Turkey has nine public holidays: five fixed national days established by the republic, two religious festivals that move eleven days earlier each year, and New Year's Day. The split is deliberate and dates to the founding of the republic in 1923 — the national days commemorate the state and Atatürk, and the two religious holidays follow the Islamic lunar calendar. Together with the half-days that precede each religious festival, they produce a calendar unlike any other in the region.
The Turkish Holiday Calendar
| Date | Holiday | Description |
|---|---|---|
| January 1 | New Year's Day | Modest celebrations; Christmas trees common as secular symbols |
| March 20-22 | Eid al-Fitr (Ramazan Bayramı) | 3-day holiday marking the end of Ramadan; family visits and sweets (approx. dates) |
| April 23 | National Sovereignty and Children's Day | Unique holiday dedicated to children; established by Atatürk in 1920 |
| May 1 | Labor and Solidarity Day | Workers' holiday; Taksim Square in Istanbul is a symbolic gathering point |
| May 19 | Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day | Marks Atatürk's arrival in Samsun in 1919; celebrated by youth |
| May 27-30 | Eid al-Adha (Kurban Bayramı) | 4-day holiday; Festival of Sacrifice; animal sacrifice tradition (approx. dates) |
| July 15 | Democracy and National Unity Day | Commemorates the failed coup attempt of 2016 |
| August 30 | Victory Day (Zafer Bayramı) | Celebrates the decisive victory in the Turkish War of Independence in 1922 |
| October 29 | Republic Day (Cumhuriyet Bayramı) | National Day; celebrates the proclamation of the Republic in 1923; fireworks and parades |
The Two Bayrams
Ramazan Bayramı, known elsewhere as Eid al-Fitr, marks the end of Ramadan and runs for three and a half days including the afternoon before. Kurban Bayramı, Eid al-Adha, marks the sacrifice of Abraham and runs for four and a half days.
Both follow the Hijri lunar calendar, which is about eleven days shorter than the solar year, so both move earlier through the seasons and complete a full cycle roughly every 33 years. Ramadan has fallen in the depths of winter and the height of summer within living memory.
The half-day before each — the arife — is a formal part of the holiday, with government offices closing at 1pm. The full breaks are the largest travel periods in Turkey, and the government routinely extends them by declaring the intervening working days as holidays to create nine-day blocks.
Atatürk Is in Four of the Nine
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk appears by name in the official titles of four Turkish public holidays, which is an unusual density of personal commemoration.
19 May is Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day, marking his landing at Samsun in 1919 to begin the war of independence. 23 April is National Sovereignty and Children's Day, marking the first meeting of the Grand National Assembly in Ankara in 1920. 30 August is Victory Day, marking the decisive battle of Dumlupınar in 1922. 29 October is Republic Day, marking the proclamation of the republic in 1923.
All four are secular and all four are tied to the founding period. Insulting Atatürk's memory remains a criminal offence in Turkey under a 1951 law.
Children's Day Is Given to the World
23 April is the only national day anywhere dedicated to children by a founding leader. Atatürk formally dedicated the date to the children of Turkey, and it is celebrated with children taking symbolic office — a child occupies the president's chair for the day, and children sit in the Grand National Assembly.
Since 1979 Turkey has invited children from other countries to participate, and TRT runs an international children's festival around it. Delegations from dozens of countries attend and stay with Turkish host families.
Schools hold ceremonies, stadium displays and poetry recitals. It is the most visible national day in Turkey after Republic Day.
Republic Day
29 October marks the declaration of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, six months after the Treaty of Lausanne recognised the new state's borders and abolished the Ottoman sultanate's remnant.
The celebration begins on the evening of the 28th, which is a half-day holiday, and involves torchlight processions, fireworks over the Bosphorus, and ceremonies at Anıtkabir, Atatürk's mausoleum in Ankara.
The centenary in 2023 was marked on an exceptional scale. The date carries political weight beyond the ceremonial — the balance between the secular republican tradition and the religious conservatism of the governing party since 2002 is the central axis of Turkish politics, and both sides claim the day.
How the Bayrams Are Actually Spent
Ramazan Bayramı is also called Şeker Bayramı, the sweets festival, because children go door to door in their neighbourhood, kiss the hands of elders and receive sweets or small amounts of money. Baklava and Turkish delight are the standard offerings, and the confectionery trade does a large share of its annual business in the week before.
Kurban Bayramı involves the ritual sacrifice of a sheep, goat or cow, with the meat divided in three: one part for the household, one for relatives and neighbours, one for the poor. Turkish charities offer a proxy service, carrying out the sacrifice on a donor's behalf and distributing the meat domestically or abroad.
Municipal authorities designate slaughter areas and the practice is regulated for hygiene, with periodic public argument about backyard slaughter in cities. Livestock markets appear on the edge of every Turkish town in the fortnight beforehand.
Turkey Changed Its Clocks and Its Calendar
Turkey adopted the Gregorian calendar on 1 January 1926, replacing the Rumi calendar, a solar Islamic system used by the late Ottoman administration in which the year began in March and the era count differed from the Christian one. The Hijri calendar continued for religious purposes only.
The change was part of a rapid sequence of reforms: the abolition of the caliphate in 1924, the hat law and the closure of religious orders in 1925, the new civil code in 1926, the Latin alphabet in 1928, and the surname law in 1934.
Turkey also abandoned daylight saving time in September 2016, staying permanently on UTC+3. That puts Istanbul on the same clock as Moscow and Riyadh, and it means winter sunrises in the west of the country can come after 8.30am.
Labour Day Was Banned for Thirty Years
1 May was recognised in Turkey from 1923, banned after the 1980 military coup, and restored as a public holiday only in 2009 under the name Labour and Solidarity Day.
The reason for the ban was the events of 1 May 1977, when gunfire from surrounding buildings into a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Taksim Square in Istanbul caused a stampede and at least 34 deaths. The perpetrators were never identified.
Taksim Square itself remains closed to May Day gatherings in most years, and attempts to hold them there produce annual confrontations with police. Rallies are permitted elsewhere in the city.
What Is Not a Holiday
Turkey has no public holiday for Mevlid Kandili, the Prophet's birthday, or for any of the other four kandil nights of the Islamic calendar. Mosques are illuminated and special prayers are held, and they remain working days.
Turkey also has a set of commemorative days without holiday status, including 18 March for the naval victory at Canakkale in 1915 and 10 November, the anniversary of Ataturk's death in 1938. At 9.05am on 10 November, the moment he died, sirens sound nationwide and the country stops for a minute of silence — traffic halts on motorways and pedestrians stand still in the street.
Asure Day, the tenth of Muharram, is not a holiday either, though it is widely marked with the sharing of a pudding of the same name. For Alevi Turks, perhaps 15 to 20% of the population, Muharram carries a period of mourning that has no official recognition at all.
Nevruz on 21 March, the spring equinox new year, is celebrated widely in the Kurdish south-east and among Alevis and is not a national public holiday. It was banned outright until 1991 and has been politically contentious ever since; large Newroz gatherings in Diyarbakır draw hundreds of thousands.
The Holiday Extension Habit
The Turkish cabinet routinely declares the working days adjacent to a bayram as administrative holidays for public employees, converting a four-and-a-half-day break into nine days.
The private sector is not bound but usually follows, particularly in manufacturing where a partial shutdown is inefficient. Banks follow the public schedule.
The economic effect is significant enough that the decision is reported as news. Retail and tourism generally welcome it; exporters and industrial associations frequently object, and the two positions are aired every year.
How Turkish Workers Are Covered
The Labour Law of 2003 entitles employees to paid time off on public holidays, and requires double pay for those who work them. National holidays and religious holidays are treated the same way for pay purposes.
Statutory paid annual leave is fourteen working days for one to five years of service, twenty for five to fifteen, and twenty-six after fifteen. Employees under 18 and over 50 get a minimum of twenty regardless of service.
Nine public holidays is at the low end for the region — Egypt, Iran and the Gulf states all have more — and reflects the small number of religious festivals recognised. Turkey's calendar is secular by design, and that design is now over a century old. For related context, see the countries where Turkish is spoken and the count of countries in Europe.
