Writer: Ayça Olcaytu İşçen
January 2010/Ankara

You have walked through the valleys of Cappadocia and visited the museums all day long, and afterwards you had a delicious dish, who can stop you? There are many options to explore Cappadocia’s nights, but if you insist on feeling here with its culture also at night, you can choose watching Sema ceremony. If you prefer some entertainment in it, then welcome to Turkish night!

“Come, come again, whoever you are, come”
Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumî, who lived between 1207 and 1273, is the symbol of love, peace, brotherhood and tolerance, all around the world. Recommending an unlimited love for God and the things God created, Mevlana embraces human without considering language, religion and race. This embracement is so strong that his creation Masnavi in which he expresses his inspiration truly, is being read all around the world. It seems that he will be speaking to us from centuries before as long as world exists; “come, come again, whoever you are come”.
We can summarize Sema ceremony as a symbolic expression of Mevlana’s doctrine, ‘being Mevlevi’. Semazen (Mevlevi who performs sema), represents God’s unity by holding his arms crosswise. Semazen’s right hand directed to sky, and left hand directed to earth symbolizes to receive God's beneficence and give it to people. Turning from right to left, pivoting around the hearth, represents embracing all people and created things with his all hearth with love. Sema ceremony consists of seven parts, each has different meanings.

Cultural richness of Anatolian people
Anatolian people, narrated their feelings, thoughts and experiences in folk songs, stories, fairy tales, and in folk dances, for many centuries. Turkish night, organized in Cappadocia, try to make feel this cultural richness mostly with folk dances. Many localities parade at Turkish night; Gaziantep, famous with its lively ‘halay’ (a folk dance performed by holding hands and forming a circle); Black Sea, as if telling rough sea with ‘kemençe’ (small three-stringed violin); Western and Central Anatolia with ‘zeybek’ (a dance which is punctuated with abrupt stops and symbolic postures to emphasize bravery and pride and ends by walking) and so many… We shouldn’t omit çiftetelli, indispensable dance of weddings and henna nights (the night before wedding) and belly dance which is almost identified with Turks. While folk dance team exhibits this diversity, your table is decorated with dishes of Cappadocia cuisine. Some of the firms which organize Turkish night, includes sema ceremony in their schedules.

Note: This text and firm presentation writings have been published in “Cappadocia Life and Travel Guide-2010”. It is under protection of the copyrights of the book. No part of this article may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by electronic, mechanical or other means without prior permission from the owner. www.cappadociaexplorer.com