By Agnieszka Rakoczy
While Turkish Cypriots do indeed celebrate the holiday season, the focus and highlight is New Year rather than Christmas. As a quick drive through north Nicosia’s commercial centre shows, this is not the tinsellating excursion into the heart of Santa-land commerce so gloried and storied in Hollywood’s annual gush of seasonal releases.
True, there are lights and Christmas decorations to be seen along the main streets but compared to the south city’s glitter this is a low-cal twinkle. Shop windows and vestibules – but not all – feature splashes of neon, the occasional snow-sprayed tree, seasonal red and green decorations, even a few Santa Clauses and sleigh-pulling reindeer.
Some windows of private residences afford the passerby similar glimpses of an acquired tradition. Perhaps, it’s for the kids. Perhaps they lived overseas for a time.
Traditionally, Turkish Cypriots, witnessed rather than observed the celebration of Christmas. Many became familiar with the customs and rituals thanks to their Greek Cypriot neighbours.
Decorations put up by the north Nicosia municipality
For Turkish Cypriots, December 25 was a prelude to the fast-approaching, new year celebration. Now, New Year’s Eve, was an occasion all could join in and celebrate.
The anticipation and excitement is beautifully caught by the Turkish Cypriot writer Taner Baybars in his memoir Plucked in a Far-off Land. Describing his childhood in Cyprus of the 1930s, he writes:
“We did not celebrate Christmas although we enjoyed the holiday. Our Christian neighbours, the Greeks and the Armenians did … But the New Year’s Eve was a common festivity among the Turks, the Greeks, the Armenians, and the Maronites…
“Even babies were allowed to stay up till midnight to see the New Year in. Best part of the evening was devoted to cracking nuts, eating raisins and oranges, telling jokes, playing cards… My father’s older brother had loaded us with confetti and other colourful strips of paper that whizzed around thrown out of their containers. These little capsules were given to children to use with utmost care… Presents in the English sense of the word didn’t exist. Such things were given at the Ramazan Bayram. Pennies, shillings, half crowns. Nothing more. Presents fell out from the crackers. Rings, little whistles, beads… Before half past twelve all the guests left. We carried on until one or later, eating and eating.”
Tuncer Huseyin Bagiskan, archaeologist and historian, notes that the Christmas tree didn’t feature in Cyprus until the British presence. And, he says, since Turkish Cypriots don’t celebrate Christmas “we use the tree for the New Year Eve celebrations”.
That said, there is no doubt that the Christmas period sees increased traffic flow and a spike in the number of shoppers in north Nicosia as the Turkish Cypriot community prepares for the general celebrations in a spirit of festive cheer.
At Cirakli, the old traditional grocery store in Arasta mahalle of the old town, an elderly couple seek out the varieties of nuts that are distributed as gifts at this time of year. The demand for pine nuts and raisins peaks too since they are essential to turkey stuffed with rice [ic pilavli hindi – the traditional dish associated with this time of year].
When it comes to turkey, however, many households nowadays opt to order their bird from hotels or restaurants as it saves time (and in some cases precious oven space!). Of course, restaurants also thrive with the season-driven increase in demand for dining out.
Decorations in front of the Saray hotel in northern Nicosia
Sevil Emirzade, a radio speaker, writer and art and craft designer, whose children are now grown up, describes how when the children were small “we had a Christmas tree and all the Christmas decorations for them.”
With a touch of nostalgia, she adds, “now that they are adult we don’t work as hard as before on this. But in our family, we would have a special dinner and exchange presents at the New Year.”
They would have a Christmas tree but it would be an artificial one “because it is a pity to cut down trees and we have to protect them.”
Not everyone feels this way, she admits and so some have normal trees.
In Emirzade’s family, New Year Eve’s dinner would start as late as 9 pm. Everyone gathered together, eating, drinking and talking. Afterwards they might watch TV and then the evening would culminate in a firework display.
Dinner always included a turkey featuring the special stuffing called ic pilav – a delicious mix of rice with pine nuts, raisins, liver, herbs and spices. A variety of salads and sweets, nuts of course, would follow.
Sevil recalls how her mother baked a special orange cake for the occasion.
“She put a coin in this cake so we children would be very excited looking for it. It was said whoever found this coin had luck for the whole year.”
Presents were left under the Christmas tree so the children would find them there first thing on the morning of January 1. Back then, she adds, there was no Santa Claus – “or Noel Baba as we called him” – whereas today Santa can sometimes be seen on the streets.
But Prio Cyprus Centre consultant Mete Hatay says he remembers seeing Noel Baba also in his childhood in the late 1960s.
“Actually, the first time Turkish Cypriot kids met with Santa Claus was during the UN food distribution during the period of intercommunal violence,” he says. “So one can say that the first Noel Baba in the Turkish Cypriot community was a UN soldier. Nowadays, one can see Santa Clauses entertaining children in big hotels or supermarkets. Sometimes, a father will also don the costume to make his children happy during the New Year’s Eve party but this is still a relatively rare case.”
Turkish Cypriots enjoy getting together and socialising during the holiday season. New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are a time for visiting friends, family and neighbours. As elsewhere, the year-end, office party has become an integral part of the social round with venues ranging from office premises to favoured restaurants.
Not that people need excuses to get together but “tis the season to be jolly” and so Aida, a lawyer, in her 30s with one child, explains how she, her family and friends, celebrate Christmas and the new year.
“Every year we have a big Christmas party with all our friends. Obviously, it is not because of any religious reasons. This is a good time to meet all together and enjoy each other’s company. Usually we book a room in a restaurant or a big hotel and we order special Christmas food, including turkey, and we ask for Christmas decorations. And we bring our children as well, so it is really a big family party.
“We also have a big Christmas tree at home and we put presents for our child and our friends’ kids under it. We do it every year with the same group of people. At first, we all bought presents for everyone but we decided that was too expensive so now we draw tickets. It is much easier.
“New Year is much more a family affair – usually with our parents at home. Again we have special food and we exchange presents. When we were at university after sharing a meal with our parents we used to go out but this is not the case any more. Perhaps a walk in Dereboyu [main street of north Nicosia] but I prefer to stay at home nowadays with the family.”
Fatma, a divorcee in her late 30s with one son, was born and raised in the US, the daughter of Turkish Cypriots. Christmas was always celebrated.
“We came back to Cyprus in the mid-1990s, and at our first Christmas here, my mother bought a Christmas tree and a turkey, and our family here looked at her and said: ‘Are you crazy? You are a Muslim, not a Christian, why would you celebrate Christmas?’
“But she said: ‘My children were born abroad and this is how they were brought up so we are going to have Christmas here as well.’ So we did and continue to do so.
“Now, I have a Christmas tree in my own home as well and I am putting presents for my son under this tree. For the New Year, he will stay with his father and my ex-husband’s family will be celebrating the New Year so he will get his presents there as well.”
Decorations on Kyrenia Avenue in northen Nicosia
Aysa Budak’s well-known patisserie has a Christmas tree and a Baba Noel in the window. She does not have a Christmas tree at home but she always puts her son’s presents under the tree in the shop. Until last year, she says, he believed in Santa Claus. These days he goes direct to the source – Aysa – with his Christmas gift wish list.
For Aysa, this is a busy time. She will be roasting her own turkey this year and she has Christmas cakes to bake as well – for her family party and for her customers.
From childhood, Aysa remembers the big family dinner that was the highlight of the December 31 celebration. “Usually it was my grandmother and I cooking it because my father and mother were very busy in our patisserie. We sold a lot of cakes at this time of year, and my father would always put small coins in them. At home we usually had a roasted chicken for dinner.”
Not everyone will be celebrating this year. Hassan, who is in his 40s, remembers how the family gathered on New Year’s Eve to eat kebab and roasted chestnuts and generally enjoy themselves.
“We didn’t drink really – our family didn’t like to drink very much.”
Sadly, this year there won’t be any celebrations. “A close relative has just passed away so we are mourning him.”
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