Sema activities gather people from the world

YALOVA - Anatolia News Agency

This year’s Sema activities lasts for one week. Many people participate to activities. DHA photo

A Turkish musical group has kicked off a full week of events in the northwestern province of Yalova to honor Anatolia’s peerless mystical poet, Jalaladdin Rumi.

“Many people from 62 countries have joined the activities. This is a reply to the call of Rumi. This is respect,” said academic Dr. Rahmi Oruç Güvenç, the founder of the Turkish Music Group, in relation to the “Sema Activities during Seven Days.”

Participants from around the world will join in on the events, which are centered on Sufi music, eulogies and poems.

“We are abiding by the Rumi tradition just like the events in past years,” Güvenç said. “Last year, we did the sema activities during 66 days and 66 nights.”

Güvenç said they initiated the sema activities in 2001 in Switzerland. “We wanted to revive the old days of Rumi with a friend of mine by doing sema activities during three days and nights. And many people participated in the activities. Whirling dervishes never stopped and nor did the music. And then, sema activities were performed in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Spain and Turkey.”

Participants from the United States, Germany, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Japan and Iran are taking part in this year’s event.