Turkish holidays

Official holidays

Jan 1: New Year's Day

National holidays

Apr 23: National Sovereignty and Children's Day (anniversary of the establishment of Turkish Grand National Assembly)

May 19: Atatürk Commemoration and Youth & Sports Day ( the arrival of Atatürk in Samsun, and the beginning of the War of Independence)

Aug 30: Victory Day (victory over invading forces in 1922).

Oct 29: Republic Day (anniversary of the declaration of the Turkish Republic)

Religious holidays

Seker Bayrami:Three-day festival when sweets are eaten to celebrate the end of the fast of Ramadan.

Kurban Bayrami: Four-day festival when sacrificial sheep are slaughtered and their meat distributed to the poor.

The dates of these religious festivals change according to the Muslim lunar calendar an thus occur 10-11 days (exact difference between Gregorian and Lunar calendars is 10 days and 21 hrs) earlier each year. According to this;

Seker Bayrami will be celebrated on 23-24-25 October 2006, and 12-13-14 October 2007, and 30 September-1-2 October 2008.

Kurban Bayrami will be celebrated on 31 December 2006-1-2-3 January 2007, and 20-21-22-23 December 2007, and 8-9-10-11 December 2008.

As you can notice, there are two Kurban Bayrami dates in 2007, it's not a mistake but it happens every 32 years. Same with Seker Bayrami but it happened in 2000 and won't happen again until 2032.