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My Bayram experience was a bit short but I enjoyed it a lot. I'd heard about the custom of children going door to door to wish everyone İyi Bayramlar and being given candy.
This sounded like children going door-to-door in the U.S., trick-or-treating and getting candy on Halloween. When I was a boy, I really appreciated the candy on Halloween and since then I've always stocked plenty for any children who came, although the custom has declined greatly in recent years.
So here, I resolved to be generous to the children. My original thought was to give each one a 1-lira coin so they could buy their own candy. When I asked a friend if he thought that was appropriate, he suggested that, as many people are not so well off around here, I could be a bit more generous and give each child a 5-lira note.
So I stocked up on 5-lira notes and inquired of a couple of friends how many visitors I could expect. Nobody could say, nobody would even venture a guess.
In the event, my stock of notes lasted less than an hour. Word spread very quickly and the kids thronged to my door. It was so nice to see the smiles on so many faces and they were so polite.
The only sad thing was running out of notes, as of course the bank was closed so I couldn't get more.
Next year you can be sure I'll be better prepared.
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