What Are the New Year Traditions in Turkey?

Turkish New Year, called Yilbasi, is a secular, festive holiday: families decorate a New Year tree, gather for a long midnight dinner, exchange gifts, play bingo and cards, and chase a string of good-luck rituals (red underwear, a smashed pomegranate, a sprinkle of salt) while the whole country buys lottery tickets for the famous Milli Piyango draw on December 31. If you only remember one thing, remember that it looks a lot like Christmas to an outside eye, but it has nothing to do with religion here.

I have spent enough New Year’s Eves in Istanbul to tell you what is real and what tourists get wrong, so let me walk you through it.

Is New Year a big deal in Turkey?

Yes, and it is arguably the most warmly celebrated holiday of the winter. Because the population is largely Muslim, Christmas is not a public holiday, so all of that end-of-year warmth (the lights, the trees, the gift-giving, the family dinner) lands on January 1 instead. The two get blended in shop windows and on the streets, which confuses a lot of first-time visitors. If you want the full picture of how the season works, I wrote a longer piece on how Turkish people celebrate Christmas and another on what the broader winter holidays in Istanbul actually feel like.

January 1 is an official public holiday. Banks, government offices, and most companies close, so the streets are quiet in the morning while half the city sleeps off the night before.

The Yilbasi tree and home decorations

Walk into a Turkish home in late December and you will very likely see a decorated evergreen with lights and ornaments. Locals call it the Yilbasi agaci, the New Year tree, not a Christmas tree, and that distinction matters to people here. The same goes for the cheerful old man in the red suit. In Turkey he is Noel Baba (Father Christmas), tied to the historical Saint Nicholas, who was actually born in Patara on Turkey’s southern coast. He shows up as a New Year figure, not a Christmas one.

Homes get strung with lights, tables get dressed up, and city centers go all in. Istiklal Avenue, the malls, and the big squares are draped in decorations from early December onward.

Good-luck rituals you will actually see

This is the part foreigners find most charming. Turks take their New Year superstitions seriously, in a fun, half-winking way.

• Red underwear. Wearing red on New Year’s Eve, especially red underwear, is supposed to bring love and luck for the year ahead. You will see piles of it in shop windows in late December. It is genuinely a thing.
• Pomegranate smashing. At midnight some people throw or smash a pomegranate on the doorstep. The more seeds that scatter, the more abundance and prosperity the coming year is meant to hold.
• Salt at the door. A pinch of salt sprinkled at the threshold at midnight is said to keep bad energy out and bring good fortune in.
• Onion or pomegranate by the door. In some households a pomegranate is hung by the door for the same reason, swapping in an onion in regions where that is the custom.

None of this is religious. It is folk tradition, the kind of thing your Turkish friend’s grandmother insists on while everyone laughs and goes along with it.

Milli Piyango: the New Year lottery everyone plays

If there is one tradition that crosses every household, religious or not, rich or poor, it is the Milli Piyango Yilbasi Ozel Cekilisi, the national lottery’s special New Year draw. People buy tickets (full, half, or quarter shares) all through December, often as gifts, and the draw is broadcast live on television on the night of December 31.

The prize is enormous and it grows every year. At the time of writing, the 2026 grand prize was a record 800 million Turkish lira, with the total pot across all prizes running into the billions. Half the country watches the numbers come in, refreshing the results and groaning together. It is a shared national ritual as much as a gamble.

What is on the New Year dinner table?

The food is the heart of Yilbasi. Families cook for hours and the meal stretches well past midnight, with everyone grazing, drinking, and playing games between courses.

The showpiece, borrowed loosely from Western tradition, is roast turkey (hindi in Turkish), though plenty of families skip it for a more local spread. Expect a long parade of meze (cold and hot appetizers), stuffed vegetables, rice pilaf, fresh salads, and a serious dessert lineup that almost always includes baklava. If you want to recreate the spread, I put together a guide to the foods Turks eat for New Year celebrations that goes course by course.

The table is also where the games happen. Tombala (Turkish bingo) is the classic, with one person calling numbers and the rest of the family marking cards and shouting when they win small prizes. Card games and chatter fill the gap until the countdown.

Going out: how Istanbul does New Year’s Eve

Plenty of people stay in with family, but if you want a night out, Istanbul delivers. The energy on December 31 is electric, and there are a few distinct ways to do it.

Taksim and Istiklal are the free, anything-goes option. Crowds pour into Taksim Square for the countdown, the lights, and the street atmosphere. It is loud, packed, and memorable, but it is also chaotic, so keep your valuables close and your expectations realistic about space.

Ortakoy, right under the first Bosphorus Bridge, gives you that postcard view of the illuminated mosque against the water, with bars and crowds all around. Galata Tower, Karakoy, and Galataport along the shore are great for watching the midnight fireworks reflect off the Bosphorus.

For the full rundown of options I trust, see my guide to where to celebrate New Year in Istanbul and the list of New Year’s Eve activities in the city. If you are deciding between a quiet night and a party, is New Year celebrated in Istanbul lays out what to expect, and the older write-up on traditional New Year celebrations in Istanbul covers the local customs in more depth.

Celebrating on the water

My personal favorite, and the splurge I recommend to friends, is welcoming midnight on the Bosphorus itself, with fireworks going off on both the European and Asian shores at once. Public dinner cruises run on December 31 and tend to cost somewhere between about 150 and 450 US dollars per person at the time of writing, depending on the boat, the dinner, and the entertainment. They sell out weeks ahead, so book early.

For a group that wants the whole boat to itself rather than sharing a packed deck, a private Istanbul yacht tour is the smoother way to ring in the year on the water, with your own table, your own music, and an unobstructed front-row seat to the fireworks.

A few honest tips before you go

Book everything early. Restaurant galas, club tables, and cruises all require reservations weeks (sometimes months) in advance, and you cannot simply walk in on the 31st. Dress warmly if you are heading out: late December in Istanbul is cold, often wet, and the wind off the water bites. And learn the one phrase that will earn you a smile everywhere: “Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun,” may your new year be blessed.

For more ideas on filling the rest of the trip, I keep an updated list of things to do in Turkey on New Year’s Eve. However you spend it, Yilbasi in Turkey is generous, noisy, and full of small superstitions, and that is exactly what makes it worth experiencing at least once.