See Tom's Turkish Almanac for more detail on weather, festivals and the significance of public holidays.
Here's the short list of Turkish national public holidays when banks, offices and businesses are closed and traffic intensifies:
January 1: New Year's Day
April 23: National Sovereignty & Children's Day
May 1: Labor and Solidarity Day
May 19: Atatürk Commemoration, Youth & Sports Day
July 15: Democracy & National Unity Day
August 30: Victory Day
October 28-29: Republic Day
Islamic Holidays
Two Islamic religious festivals are also important national holidays in Turkey: Ramazan Bayramı following the holy month of Ramazan; and Kurban Bayramı. Both of these holidays are celebrated according to the traditional Islamic Hijri lunar calendar, so their Common Era calendar dates change each year. More...
Holiday Hours of Operation
Government and business offices close on national civil (that is, non-religious) holidays, but museums, archeological sites and most other sites of interest to foreign visitors remain open during their regular hours.
The exception is the two major Islamic holidays, Ramazan Bayramı and Kurban Bayramı. On the first day of these holidays, museums are closed for the morning, but they open after lunch. More...
—by Tom Brosnahan
| Tom's Turkish Almanac |
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