23 Nisan - April 23 Children's Festival

Pictures taken by Carrie Akkelle ( canmom ) - http://www.flickr.com

Thanks Carrie!

23 April is a national holiday in Turkey - it's Children's Festival and marks the day of the opening of the first National Assembly after the Turkish Republic had been established.

Children dress up in different costumes, parade, sing songs, recite poems and perform dances and theatre plays. Schools and the streets are decorated with flags and families go out together and enjoy the day.

On this day, children in Ankara also take over the National Assembly, form the parliament and symbolically govern the country for one day.

Since the 90th it has become a custom to invite children from all over the world to participate in this festival and celebrate diversity and help establish peace between cultures.

Jewish and Christian Sites in Bursa

Because there is often the misconception that non-Muslims cannot build their churches and synagogues in Turkey, I wanted to share some information with you. There have always been churches and synagogues in Turkey the number has significant

ly decreased. In Bursa, all churches had been closed down because there were no (significant) numbers of worshipers anymore. One church has been renovated and re-opened to the public for worship in 1996. It's the French Protestant church. It had opened in 1881 for the first time and was used by Italians in the 70th, who had come to Bursa to work at Fiat/Tofaş.

Most Jews left for Israel I believe. But at least one synagogue has always remained open. I was once standing in front of its door but didn't dare open it :-) The only time I was in a synagogue was in Instabul. I'm more comfortable with churches because I lived in Germany and know how to behave in one. One of the synagogues was established when the Ottomans conquered Bursa in 1326, another one was build for the Jews who came from Spain at the end of the 14th century. Here is some information about Jews in Bursa: 

http://snipurl.com/jews-in-bursa

http://www.allaboutturkey.com/jews.htm.

Now, that more and more people from Europe and other places move permanently to Turkey, new churches are being build. 

Conquest of Bursa - Mehter, oldest military band in the world

I learned that today, 6 April, is the anniversary of Bursa's conquest. It was conquered in 1324 CE by Orhan, son of Osman, the founder of the Ottoman Empire after whom the Empire was named. Bursa was the first capital city of the Ottoman Empire. That's why Osman, Orhan and many more of the Sultans and their families have their tombs in Bursa. There are many historic building in the city, too.

Unfortunately, I missed the celebration and the parade. But one of the groups participating was the Ottoman style military band, which is very popular. It is said that it's the world's oldestor first military band - not these guys, of course :-). Here is a link to their website with many downloadable marches, a photo gallery and you can also watch some videos. I have embedded one here.

http://bursamehter.com/