What Does Turkish Delight Symbolise? (2024)

FAQs

What Does Turkish Delight Symbolise? ›

Turkish

Turkish delight holds deep cultural significance in Turkey, Iran, and across the Middle East and Eastern Europe. It symbolizes hospitality, generosity, and celebration. In Turkey, lokum is a staple during festive occasions such as weddings, where it symbolizes sweetness and prosperity in the couples' life together.

Turkish Delight symbolizes temptation and sin in The Chronicles of Narnia. When Edmund eats it, he becomes enchanted: he is so desperate to get more Turkish Delight that he is willing to betray his family.

As the story goes, the Sultan, trying to cope with all his mistresses, summoned his confectionary chefs and demanded the production of a unique dessert. It was through this summon that the Turkish Delight was born.

Turkish delight is a confectionery product that differs from the others with its characteristic soft and jelly-like consistency. The main ingredients used in its production are sugar, wheat starch and glucose syrup. In recent years, there has been a tendency to increase consumer interest in so-called functional foods.

The flag, which has no official meaning, is blood red, according to legend, and represents the shed blood of martyrs. The image of the Turkish flag was formed with the crescent moon and a star reflected on these bloods at midnight. This legend is said to have taken place in the First Battle of Kosovo in 1389.

Lokum derives from the Arabic word 'rahat ul-hulküm' which means 'comforting to the throat'. The most eminent story goes, an Ottoman Sultan summoned his confectionary chef and ordered him to create a sweet treat that was light on the throat and his tooth. Through this, Turkish delight was born.

Narnia represents Christianity through the use of symbolism and allegory. By having characters, objects, and places in the story represent Biblical ideas or people, Lewis creates an allegorical story of Christ. For example, Aslan is symbolic of Christ, while the White Witch is symbolic of Satan.

The pastries pictured in the first and second pictures contain bits of the Oriental sweet known as Turkish Delight. In Romanian the word “rahat” has two meanings: one is, indeed “Turkish Delight”, and the other one is a euphemism for, well, excrement.

“The whole Narnia series is about Christ,” said Ward. “The first, second and seventh book is a major comparison of the life of Christ. In these novels, Christ is depicted as Creator, Redeemer and Judge.” But in the other four books, Christ's figure of Aslan is not as obvious.

Why do we have Turkish delight at Christmas? ›

During his travels to Istanbul, an unknown British traveler became very fond of the delicacy, purchased many cases of Lokum and had them shipped to Britain under a new name; Turkish Delight. It was initially intended as a luxurious treat to be offered during Christmas time.

In most of the world, "Aplets & Cotlets" were based on a treat called lokum, a word derived from Arabic, but the British and Americans know it as "Turkish delight."

Turkish Delight, also known as Lokum, is a delicately flavored, fragrant, chewy jelly candy that has been a hallmark of my homeland, Turkey, since Ottoman times.

: a jellylike or gummy confection usually cut in cubes and dusted with sugar. called also Turkish paste.

Turkish Delight (or Lokum) is a sweet, made with starch and powdered sugar. It is often flavored with rosewater or lemon. It was Edmund Pevensie's favourite sweet, and a magical (enchanted) version of it was offered to him by The White Witch.

Although Turkish delight is delicious, it isn't the healthiest of treats, and consuming too much of it in one go can cause a sugar rush.

The lovely crystal blue eye charm known as the nazar boncuğu is by far the most popular good luck amulet in Turkey and is part of the Bodrum logo. These amulets can be found everywhere and are commonly sold in tourist shops as a small souvenir.

Flowers like rose petals and jasmine are a traditional ingredient in Turkish delight and, perhaps more recently, lavender, but Delphiniums are not good to eat, despite how appealing they look.

Turkey has no official national emblem, but the crescent and star (Turkish: ay-yıldız "crescent-star") design fromthe national flag is in use as the de facto national emblem on Turkish passports, Turkish identity cards and at the diplomatic missions of Turkey. Turkey's national flower is the tulip.