In Turkey the festival is known as Qurban Bayram, and involves the ritual sacrifice of a goat, camel or similar animal to commemorate Abraham, who was commanded to sacrifice his son but re-ordered at the last moment to replace his child with a ram as he showed his true faith in god. The glory of this willingness to sacrifice is justly celebrated in Islam, the religion whose name literally means 'submission to God'.

The meat of the sacrificed animal is then ritually divided amongst friends, family but mainly distributed amongst the poor, to uphold one of the five Islamic tenets, charity. The celebration is an opportunity for friends and family to visit each other.