Three-dimensional figures were a feature of celebrations and festivals, as we learn both from written accounts and from miniature illustrations. Celebrations on the occasion of the circumcision of Ottoman princes, the marriage of a princess, or the birth of a royal child sometimes lasted for weeks, and the entertainments included automata, displays of fireworks attached to figures of people, animals and fabulous creatures, giant puppets, and sugar sculptures in the form of coloured statues of animals and huge gardens. Some of these could be carried by a single person, while some required four people or more, and others were so large that they had to be carried on carts.

Sugar sculptures were also a feature of Renaissance festivities in Europe , where they were known as 'sotteltes', 'zuckerwerk', 'suttelties' and so on. In Turkey the confectioners who produced these sugar sculptures were known as 'sükker nakkas' or sugar decorators.