My first handkerchief

It was 50 years ago to the day that I was given my first handkerchief . We had prayed and we had paid our respects to the dead and then taken a boat across the waters. I remember a perfectly hot day and a blue sky, a square overlooking the straits, and eating fish. I remember the dancing and the alcohol and coffee. And I remember my father pressing a white handkerchief into my hand, the taste of the sweets it held, and reading the words – ‘Let us love, let us be loved’ – embroidered in one of its corners. I still have the handkerchief. It smells of sweets and of love.

In Turkey, the Seker Bayrami or Holiday of Sweets marks the end of Ramadan, the introspective austerity of a month of fasting replaced by the excesses of the banquet. 

Image credit: Stock Adobe