Turkey Holidays - Event

The Commemorative Ceremony for Mevlana, the great Sufic saint (1207-1273), is one of the world's greatest spectacles. More than a million people descend on Konya, the ancient Seljuk capital, for the Whirling Dervishes Festival (Sema).

Mevlana taught complete tolerance, positive thinking, awareness of God through love and union with God through dance. At his Mausoleum in Konya, centuries-old mystical dances are performed in his honour by his Sufi followers.

The dance, music, listening and spiritual experience fuse together during the dance of the Dervishes, and the religious leader and the leader of the dance also become one. The final night commemorates the death of Mevlana and his union with God.

The dancers are accompanied by the ney (the title of one of Mevlana's longer poems) reed pipe, a reference to the mythological trumpet sur that will be blown on the Day of Judgement.

The dancers' conical hat represents a gravestone, their cloak a coffin and their white skirt a shroud, while the leader represents the sun and the spinning dancers the orbits of the stars and moon. The four dances symbolise the four seasons, the four elements and the four ages of man.

The dancers begin by marching around the hall three times, representing the knowledge of God, the seeing of God and the truth of unity. Then, as each phase of the performance starts, the Dervishes kiss the right hand of the Sheikh (Mevlevi religious leader) and begin to whirl. The head twists to one side, the arms are crossed and the hands are clasped. The upturned palm is said to receive influence from Heaven, which is handed down to the world below by the other hand. With downcast eyes, the dancers spin faster, their long white skirts spinning open like umbrellas.