Post Tagged with "Turkey"

Picture Postcards: Turkish lunch

A Turkish lunch of pideli köfte – meatballs (these ones were lightly flavoured with cumin) on cubes of pide bread. Accompanied by a drink rarely seen outside Turkey, Uludağ gazoz.

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Cultural expertise quiz will be back soon

In last week’s quiz we asked how to greet older relatives in Turkey.

The answer is: true. Sinan wrote:

“It is a Turkish tradition and is also applicable to any elderly person of either sex.”

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How do Turkish people greet older relatives?

This week’s cultural expertise quiz question comes from Sinan, our contributor in Turkey.

You’re a young Turk and you visit your grandfather. When you first see him you bow toward him, hold his hand lightly with his palm facing downward, kiss it and then touch your forehead on his hand as a sign of respect.

True or false?

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Tulip: Symbol of abundance, indulgence and Istanbul

Since 2006, every April Istanbul hosts International Tulip Festival. Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality plants millions of tulips in the city’s public grounds, concerts & art exhibitions are organized and a photography competition for “Best Tulip” is held.

Some might say, “Wait a minute! Holland is the country of tulips. What has tulip got to do with Istanbul or Turkey?”. Well, let’s take a glimpse of history.

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Naming children: traditions in 13 different countries

How are children’s names chosen in your country? Do you follow ancient naming traditions or are modern names more popular? Do you pass names down through family generations or invent new ones?

We’ve had a lot of fun writing this post and the subject of how children are named in our various countries has inspired a lot of discussion within our team of contributors. So, read on to find out how children’s names are chosen in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey and the USA.

Have something to add? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

There aren’t many clear-cut naming traditions in Argentina nowadays. In the past, first-born babies were named after their parents but now the focus is on distinctiveness. Parents choose names they like or that are fashionable. For example, when Argentinean-born Maxima Zorriegueta married Crown Prince Wilhelm-Alexander of the Netherlands, the name Maxima became very popular.

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Picture Postcards: Flowers around the globe

We’ve had such an amazing number of flower photos contributed this month that we thought we’d finish up with a bit of a global montage (Cue the music!).

Typical flowers at Chirripó in Costa Rica by Nuriacr on Flickr

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