Write a Spring Wish for Good Luck at Hıdrellez / 🇹🇷 Turkey

Choose one wish you can write in a line. It might be to make time for people you miss, begin a project you have been putting off or give yourself room to start over. At Hıdrellez, communities welcome spring with gatherings and many local customs. In one practice recorded in Türkiye, women wrote their wishes on slips of paper, put them in a pot and left it under a rose plant overnight. Take the part of the custom you can enjoy on a small scale. Read the note the next morning with fresh eyes and decide whether there is one thing you can do to bring your wish a little closer.

1. On the evening of 5 May, choose a short wish and write it on a small piece of paper. Fold it so the words stay private.
2. Set the note in a small container near a rose plant you can reach. If you have no plant, keep it near a flower or a picture of one indoors.
3. On 6 May, take out the note and read it. Think about why that wish came to mind and pick an action you could take this week.
4. Keep the paper in a notebook or recycle it when you are ready. If you mark the day with someone else, you can each share the part of your wish you feel like telling.

The spring celebration of Hıdrellez is marked on 6 May. Its name brings together Hıdır and İlyas, figures linked to land, water and help for people in need. Different communities mark the occasion with gatherings and wishes for the season ahead. In the rose custom documented in Türkiye, participants took their slips from a pot the next day while singing verses. That makes the opening of the paper as much a part of the story as the night spent beside the plant. At home, leaving it overnight gives the wish a little time. What seemed urgent in the evening can look different in the morning, when you unfold the paper and read your own words again.