Manisa paste festival returns after hiatus

MANISA

After a four-year hiatus, the 484th International Mesir Paste Festival was held in the western province of Manisa, featuring seven tons of the traditional medicinal paste.

The festival, a UNESCO-recognized Intangible Cultural Heritage tradition, returned in a vibrant display of color and culture. The celebration was put on hold for three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and an additional postponement following last years’ Feb. 6 earthquakes.

This year's festivities kicked off with a lively parade featuring the city's municipality mehter team, a marching band with historical roots. The parade also included costumed representations of Ottoman sultans, princes and historical figures like Hafsa Sultan, who spent part of her life in Manisa, and Merkez Efendi, a revered Ottoman physician. International and Turkish folk-dance groups added to the festive atmosphere with performances throughout the parade.

During the ceremony, a whopping seven tons of the specially made sweet paste, containing around 41 different spices, rained down from 41 different points atop the Sultan Mosque's, one of the city's iconic monuments, domes and minarets.

The festival commemorates the recovery of the Hafsa Sultan, the mother of Süleyman the Magnificent, from a mysterious disease cured by the paste. Thousands of people come from different regions of Türkiye to compete to catch the sweets. Many believe that by so doing their wishes for marriage, work and children will come true within the year, according to the UNESCO website.