The Story of Kandil

[Hilkat Ozgun]

The five holy evenings on the Muslim calendar are called Kandil, which means Candle. It is so called because all the mosques are illuminated and those are the nights on which Muslims pray for forgiveness and wish to see the right way of things to be done according to their religion. During the Ottoman Empire Sultan Selim II of 16th century lit candles on the minarets of the mosques in order to announce these holy nights to the public. Since this calendar is calculated with the revolution of the moon around the earth the dates of the Kandils differ every year.