NATIONAL HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS IN TRABZON DURING THE FIRST YEARS OF THE REPUBLIC (1923-1950)

Abstract

The forms of special day celebrations and their development in the process are important issues in terms of social history. National holidays are the days that unite the society, reinforce the feelings of national unity and solidarity, and play an important role in the transfer of common values to the new generations.
October 29, 1923 after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, the tradition of celebrating national holidays that come from Empire era, has been continued. In this context, with a circular issued in 1924, it was accepted to celebrate the October 29th day when the Republic was announced, as a national holiday. Almost the same process was valid for the opening of the Turkish Grand National Assembly on 23 April 1920. The third national holiday which was accepted during the Republican period, is the 30th of August Victory Day. The last special day accepted as the national holiday in this process is the day of May 19, 1919 when Ghazi Mustafa Kemal went to Samsun. This meaningful date was accepted as a national holiday on 20 June 1938.
This study sheds light on how the days, which were accepted as national holidays in Turkey, have been celebrated in Trabzon, what activities have been held, the level of public participation, and what extent the local authorities protect these special days. As a result of this research, which was not included in any academic study, it was observed that the people from the young to the elderly, from the civil servant to the farmers, from the urban to the peasants have protected the national holidays and have celebrated the holidays in the best way.
In this study, archival documents, local newspapers and source works about Trabzon's recent history which are on our hands, were reviewed by document scanning method, also academic studies related to this subject were also benefited.