Lonely Planet İstanbul Guide

June It’s summertime and, yes, the living is easy. There’s an abundance of sweet cherries and sour green plums in the produce markets and the open-air nightclubs on the Bosphorus start to hit their strides. 3 İstanbul Music Festival The city’s premier arts festival (http://muzik.iksv.org/en) includes performances of opera, dance, orchestral concerts and chamber recitals. Acts are often internationally renowned and much of the action takes place in atmosphere-laden Aya İrini. ISLAMIC HOLIDAYS & EVENTS Islamic religious holidays and events are celebrated according to the Muslim lunar Hejira calendar, so their dates change every year. The most important event of the year is the holy month of Ramazan (called Ramadan in other countries), when Muslims fast from dawn until dusk and then sit with friends, family and community members to enjoy iftar (the meal that breaks the fast). It runs between May and June from 2017 to 2019. These iftar meals are sometimes held in streets or in large tents within the grounds of mosques. A three-day festival called Ramazan Bayramı (also known as Şeker, or Sugar, Bayramı because it involves lots of candy consumption) celebrates the completion of Ramazan. The four- or five-day Kurban Bayramı is the most significant religious holiday of the year. It celebrates the biblical and Kur’anic account of Abraham’s near-sacrifice of his son on Mt Moriah. In 2017 it will be in September; in 2018, August.