When is Sacrifice Eid in Turkey 2023?

The Sacrifice Eid is known as Kurban Bayramı (in Turkish) or Eid al-Adha (in Arabic), which means “Holiday of Sacrifice”. It takes place 70 days after Ramadan and in 2023 will be Wednesday, June 28th is the first day of Sacrifice Eid in 2023.

What is Sacrifice Eid (Sacrifice Feast) ?

Sacrifice Feast or (Eid al-Adha in Arabic and Kurban Bayrami in the Turkish language) is held around the 10th to the 13th day of the Islamic month of Dhu al-Hijjah (Zilhicce) and commemorates Prophet Ibrahim’s (Abraham) obedience to God by agreeing to sacrifice his own son. God then sent him a ram to be sacrificed instead of his son.

The Sacrifice Feast traditions in Turkey include sacrificing an animal in a special ritual, visiting relatives, and helping the poor. So most citizens go back to their family who lives in their hometown so roads are more crowded than the rest of the year.

Part of this celebration is visiting friends and family. As a rule, the younger ones should visit the older ones. In some nations, because of cultural tradition rather than Islam, some people exchange gifts. Here in Turkey, children should kiss their elders’ hands and then lift them up to their foreheads. After this gesture, the older person gives some amount of money to the child (a tradition that also happens on the Holiday of Ramadan).

In some families in Turkey, people paint the head of sheep or ram with henna and adorn it with ribbons. Either the eldest person of the family or the butcher reads a prayer before slaughtering the animal.

Families share about two-thirds of the animal’s meat with relatives and neighbors, and they traditionally give about one-third to the poor. At the end of Sacrifice Feast get ready for the same traffic jam on the way back home.

Before the sacrifice, many families buy animals and feed them to prepare them for sacrifice. Some families or neighbors get together to buy an animal. In smaller and more religious cities, sacrificial rituals are still performed in the streets or squares. In larger cities, this practice is prohibited, and there are specific places to perform the sacrifice.

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Is Sacrifice Feast a Public Holiday?

Yes, Sacrifice Feast is a four-day religious festival and also it is a public holiday in the country. It is a day off for the general population, and schools and most businesses are closed. Museums are closed for half days on June 28 so this will affect your travel plans if you planning travel to Turkey in 2023 including these four days. Supermarkets remain open. In Istanbul, Grand (Covered) Bazaar and Spice Market will be closed throughout the Sacrifice Eid. But, if the holidays fall during school, the schools do not work the entire week, just as many companies dismiss their employees during the holiday.

Is Eid al-Adha Same with Feast of the Sacrifice?

Yes, these terms refer to the same day, however, due to cultural differences both are used in modern culture. On the morning of the first day of the Sacrifice Eid in Turkey, men of each family go to a mosque for special morning prayer in the early hours of the day with the first sunrise. When they get back home, the sacrifice ritual begins.

If you are doing a road trip in Turkey you can stretch it to a week or more, depending on your interests. Mostly this traffic starts a week before the Sacrifice Eid and covers the following ten days. However please remember private Istanbul tours are still operated on Sacrifice Eid, your tour guide will revise the itinerary according to closed sites and replace it with another sight of interest to visit.

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