| Description |
Mesir Macunu (paste) Festival has been annually celebrated for 472 years during March 21st-24th of each year. The roots of Festival go back to a historical anecdote about the mesir macunu, Hafsa Sultan, mother of the Ottoman Ruler Suleiman the Magnificent contracts an incurable disease. In an effort to find a cure for this disease, Merkez Efendi, the Chief Physician of the Madrasah of Sultan Mosque concocts a special experimental recipe of a paste with 41 different herbs and spices. This special paste to be thenceforth known as the mesir macunu (paste) cures Hafsa Sultan rapidly. Hafsa Sultan then asks to disseminate this paste to the wider public, hoping that it would ensure the well being of each and everyone. Wrapped in small pieces of paper, the paste is then “scattered” to the community, from Sultan Mosque. Since then, at each and every anniversary of this event, people gathering around Sultan Mosque commemorate the invention of this healing paste, through a series of events.
The festival begins with the “mixing” and cooking of the mesir macunu, prepared in respective proportions and mixtures in line with the traditional know-how. Blessed with wishes for cure, the paste is then packed up by women according to the traditional knowledge. It is then scattered among the public from the top of the minaret and the domes of the Sultan Mosque. Thousands of people coming from different regions of Turkey compete with each other, in a challenge to grab these pastes in the air, before they finally hit the ground. |
| Social and cultural significance |
The Festival is the main pillar of Manisa’s Intangible Cultural Heritage. The inhabitants of the city have an intense relationship with the festival, not only in the month of March, but the whole year through. The fundamental basis of the festival is the strength of tradition and the full social integration of all the participants together with local, regional and national institutions.
For 472 year until today, the festival with the active voluntary participation of the inhabitants played a substantial role in forming a collective memory and city identity for Manisa.
There is a common local beliefs that those grabbing mesir macunu would be healed and their wishes for marriage and having children would come true in a year. These beliefs particularly for getting married or finding a job would increase the participation of youngsters to the festival.
The festival is an expression of belonging to a city which plays an important stabilizing role in the city habitants by offering a chance of self-expression and self-representation to the community and the individual from different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. Wide range and number of participants welcomed on non-discriminative basis from every age group, gender and ethnic origin to the festival contributes to the improvement of cultural dialogue. The unique character of the Mesir Macunu Festival and the excellent co-operation of the inhabitants of the city have guaranteed that dialogue among the city’s inhabitations has strengthened mutual respect. |
| Transmission method |
Mesir Macunu’s preparation is based on traditional knowledge and skills transmitted across generations. The Chef transmits all the traditional knowledge and skills to his apprentices required to make the mesir macunu in a master-apprentice relationship and ensure the viability of the element.
Mesir Macunu, considered to be healing by the people, are blessed with prayers and hymns by 28 imams. Every year, about half of the imams are substituted in order to transmit the tradition to other younger imams. Senior imams transfer knowledge and experience on how to scatter the mesir macunu in a fair manner to people from the top of the domes.
Every year, at least three tons of mesir macunu are wrapped in colored and shiny pieces of small paper by 14 women, selected based on a series of criteria such as dexterity, experience and patience. Those experienced women being excelled every year teach this practice through workshops to younger women.
Representatives of public agencies, academic institutions and NGOs, in addition to large numbers of inhabitants voluntarily and actively participate both in preparation process and festival itself. Joint participation of young and the elder generations provides intergenerational interaction, transmission and contributes to the viability of the element.
The Sultan Mosque and its complex, for 472 year until today, have been preserved as the cultural places where the festival taking place and traditional knowledge, skills and know-how being transmitted and safeguarded. |
| Community |
Practitioners of the Element:
The Chef and Apprentices, Women in charge, İmams, Janissary Band, Manisa's local and regional people and domestic and international participants
Organization Committee of the Festival:
Governor’s Office of Manisa, Association of Tourism and Promotion of Manisa and Mesir, Municipality of Manisa, Manisa Provincial Culture and Tourism Directorate (Ministry of Culture and Tourism), Manisa Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Celal Bayar University
The Chef and Apprentices:
The chef and the apprentices prepare the mesir macunu according to the traditional practices transmitted from one generation to another. The Chef checks the freshness of spices and herbs, setting proportions and verifying the cooking environment and equipment.
Women in charge:
(14 people) The women accompany the chef and apprentices while the preparation of the mesir macunu and wrap them as ready to disseminate in line with the traditional ways.
İmams:
(28 people) According to local beliefs, İmams should cite a Mesir Prayer and a Hymn for the mesir macunu wrapped in large sacs for them to have curative effect before the scattering ceremony. Then they would scatter these pastes from the domes of the Sultan Mosque.
Janissary Band:
(45 people) This is an orchestra, dressed up according to the traditional wear of the Ottoman Empire, performing historical Ottoman music both during the preparation of the mesir macunu and throughout the festival.
Participants of the Festival:
All the participants from all over the world and inhabitants primarily those gathering to grab the mesir macunu scattered from the domes, in the hope of finding both physical and spiritual cure, are also bearers of the Festival. Inhabitants of Manisa do not experience the festival as a mere show, they actively take part in the Festival because they have deep emotional attachment to it born of centuries of passing the tradition from one generation to the next. |
| Type of UNESCO List |
Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity |
| Incribed year in UNESCO List |
2012 |
