
Turkish Thracian cities hosted the Romani feast of "Kakava" on May 5 and 6.
Believed to be related with the Turkish "Hıdrellez" and Orthodox St George's Day, Kakava also heralds the spring. Kakava ("caldron" in Romanes language) Fest is celebrated with a feast of lamb or goat meat, music, dance and a huge bonfire. Typically, families gather around water sources and release their wish-papers in the river or the spring. With the first rays of the sun, the revelers head to the river where they wash their face, a ritual believed to bring health and prosperity.

The local Kakava fest has turned into an international festival in the city of Edirne, a Turkish city with a large Roma population. This year's festival was inaugurated by the mayor and the governor of the city, with the mayor Recep Gürkan saying, "Kakava is a Romani tradition. A Roma started the first Kakava bonfire a thousand years ago".
Although a local Romani festival, the event now attracts thousands of people from other cities, eager to experience the festive spring salutation. Kakava, included in the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List, is vying for a permanent entry in the list.
Related Posts
24/02/2006
For some women the Islamic headscarf, or hijab, no longer functions exclusively as a symbol of modesty. Nowadays, veiled women in Beirut are no different to their fashion loving sisters elsewhere. The hijab does not dominate its wearer as once it did, condemning her to be nothing more than a shuffling piece of cloth.
19/10/2010
The highlight of this year's Liverpool Biennial is the art from Palestine on show in Future Movements Jerusalem. It's art made against the forcings of Occupation, about a city currently forbidden to most of the artists in the show.
14/11/2006
Istanbul in the second half of the nineteenth century became both training ground and inspiration for the emerging artists of photography, Ottoman and foreign alike. For any European traveller, exotic Istanbul was a first stop on the way to the Orient, and many a fledgling photographer fell under its spell, among them such legends-to-be as James Robertson, Felice and Antonio Beato, Carlo Naya and Tancrède Dumas. All stayed on to hone their photographic skills while exploring the city. “The photographers of Constantinople” is a comprehensive history of photography in the Ottoman empire that gives cosmopolitan Istanbul the prominence it deserves.