The festival has feature unique and fascinating demonstrtions of distinctive traditional Turkish crafts, such as paper water marbling (Ebru), and carpet weaving. There will be live Turkish musical performances and folk dancing, including Sufi music and dancing. The festival will also include dazzling displays of handcrafted linens, clothing, and carpets, decorative accessories, hand-painted ceramic plates and tiles, copper crafts, pottery, silk scarves, pillowcases, books on Turkish life, culture, cooking and travel, and CDs of traditional and other popular, rock and jazz Turkish music.

The mehterhane which is one of the symbols of the emperorship in all Islamic states has been passed to the Ottoman State by the Seljuk State. In 1299 The Selcuk Sultan Alaeddin Keykubat III had sent the sancak as a symbol for the beylik together with drums, etc. From this date on, which at the same time was accepted as the independence of the Ottoman State.

Unlike other categories of music, mehter music was played for everybody and was heard by the largest community of peoples. Conversely, the impact of mehter music has been felt in many areas of musical activities and above all in the everday life of the Turks. The institution of mehter has been associated from its inception with the House of Osman. The history of the mehterhane provides us with data about the rise and significance of mehter music in the military, political and social life of the Turks. A complex cultural structure with an entire array of significations and wide-range ramifications reaching from the spiritual to the warfare, mehter music combined military, ceremonial and entertainment activities with religious overtones.

Don’t miss the concerts of the Ottoman Military Band at the Toronto Turkish Festival, for the first time in Canada.

The Whirling Dervishes are followers of the 13th century poet, Islamic jurist, theologian, and sufi master Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Rumi, who lived in Konya, Türkiye. He represents the mainstream Islamic philosophy driven by the Quran and the Prophet Mohammed. The Whirling Dervishes are known for their famous practice of whirling as a form of dhikr (remembrance of God). The rituals of the Whirling Dervishes are among the most enduring as well as the most exquisite ceremonies of spirituality. The ritual whirling of the dervishes is an act of love and a drama of faith. It possesses a highly structured form within which the gentle turns become increasingly dynamic as the individual dervishes strive to achieve a state of trance. The music that accompanies the whirling from the beginning to the end ranges from somber to rhapsodically; its effect is intended to be mesmerizing. The Sufi made great use of music and poetry for their mystical expression, leaving a considerable heritage of poetic and musical creation.

Sufi whirling (or Sufi spinning), is a twirling meditation that originated among Sufis, which is still practiced by the Dervishes of the Mevlevi order. It is a symbolic ritual through which dervishes (also called semazens) aim to reach the "perfect" (kemal). The aim is to abandon one's nafs, egos or personal desires, by listening to God and the music (hence the term sema), thinking about God and whirling which has been compared to the orbiting of the planets in the Solar System around the sun.

Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi says, "All loves are a bridge to Divine love. Yet, those who have not had a taste of it do not know!"

Folk dances are performed at weddings, engagement ceremonies, when sending young men off to perform their military service, at national and religious festivals, after victories, going to and coming back from the high plateaus (in some parts of Türkiye people temporarily live in high plateaus during the hot summer months). People wear daily or special costumes in line with the reasons behind the particular dance. In Türkiye folk dance is invariably accompanied by musical instruments.

Dances are generally performed in all suitable open areas, but may also be performed in close areas as well. People who enjoy reputations as good folk dancers are especially invited to wedding ceremonies. These are respectable people who have knowledge of that region’s music and folk dances. Folk dances owe their rich variety of moves to such people, who happily improvise while performing in order to show off their skills. In this way, dances are successfully passed on to people who may or may not be capable of dancing themselves, especially the young ones.

Folk dances have different characteristics based on region and location. There are many different types of folk dances performed in various ways in Türkiye, and these reflect the cultural structure of each region. The bar in Erzurum province, the halay in the East and Southeast, the hora in Thrace, the horon in the Black Sea and spoon dances in and around Konya are the best known examples of these.

Türkiye’s cultural fabric is made up of a rich combination of diverse cultures rooted deeply in history. By virtue of its geographical position, Türkiye lies at the axis of the cultures of the East, the West, the Middle Eastern, the Mediterranean and Islam. Anatolia is one of the world’s oldest human habitats – hosts of civilizations have called it home – and it enjoys a unique cultural richness with its thousands of years of history. Anatolia’s cultural variety is so rich that we can see great cultural differences even in areas geographically quite close to each other. This colorful portrait holds just as true for Türkiye’s music. We can categorize the types of music heard through the years of Anatolia’s long history..

• Traditional/Local Music • Modern Turkish Classical Music • Popular Music • Other Music Examples

An important feature of Turkish music is that within all historically known periods, it has been a modal form of music. This system of modes, or makams, is known to have changed from time to time in relation to the makam system in use today. This musical heritage is built on a theoretical foundation extending back at least a thousand years, and has undergone much evolution on the way to its present form.

Toronto Turkish Festival is one of the best places where you can listen to many different styles of live Turkish Music.

One of the most unique and beautiful forms of Turkish art is Ebru, or water marbling. Ebru is formed by drawing designs with dye on top of water, and then carefully placing paper on the surface of the water in order to absorb the dye. Usually referred to as Turkish paper marbling or water marbling, ebru is formed through a step-by-step procedure followed by master practitioners.

The first step is to create the perfect dye, using soil from Istanbul, white lead, Pakistani indigo, or red ochre through a lengthy process. Ebru masters of the Ottoman era even added 24-karat gold to the dye to give their marbled paper shimmer and shine. The ox-gall and dye solution is then sprinkled on to the surface of the "water bath". Finally, the ebru master carefully lays the paper over the bath, and the floating picture on top is transferred, creating a unique marbled print. Often, the ebru master will use handmade horsehair brushes, combs, or needles to create flowers, birds, geometric designs, or calligraphy.

Ebru is often used for bookmarks, inside the bindings of books, for wall hangings, and to surround both Arabic and Turkish calligraphy. The next time you visit the Turkish Festival, make sure that you don’t consider leaving without picking up a beautiful piece of Turkish culture, a totally unique, handmade Ebru.

Calligraphy is a spiritual geometry produced by material implements. One day, the world famous painter Picasso saw the work of a master calligrapher and could not help crying "This is art!" because of the authentic aesthetic he witnessed: Islamic Calligraphy.

The art of Calligraphy has reached today's standards after undergoing various transformations throughout centuries, bringing invaluable works into existence. Turkish Calligraphy is the combination of letters of Latin alphabet which were adopted as of the foundation of the Turkish Republic in the 20th Century, with the art of Islamic Calligraphy (Husn-i Hat).

The scribes usually display their skills at fairs and exhibitions as they produce works of Calligraphy in a few seconds without any template, in the presence of visitors with customized on-demand applications. The Admirers of this art ask the scribe to write a person’s name, the name of a company, or beautiful saying on cards, key rings, plates and tablets to use as ornaments of gifts.

The word “tezhib” originally comes from Arabic meaning the art of embellishing handwritten books such as the Holly Quran (heading and overleaf inscriptions), the Divan, Tablets, firmans, stanzas and berats (deeds of privilege) with guild and dyes. The artist who practices this art is called “Muzehhib”.

The origin of illumination extends to the Uygur Turk. The works of Turkish and Persian masters have made way to “Heart Style” starting in the second half of the 15th and ending in the beginning of the 17th century. Numerous artists trained in the imperial Decoration School (Nakkashane), namely Baba Nakkas had given the unparalleled products of Turkish illumination art. After being employed in embellishing the official documents, the art of illumination led its sharpest and brightest era with the support of the Imperial Palace.

Turkish ceramic art has a long, but very specific history. Today, there are two main ceramic-producing centers in Türkiye: Iznik and Kutahya. Tiles and blue-and-white decorative ceramics have been made in Iznik since the late 1400s. With the support and patronage of the 15th-century Ottoman court, ceramic artists developed a technically advanced ceramic industry in Iznik. The pastes used in blue-and-white Iznik ceramics have a hard, fine quality. Also, these ceramics are fired at temperatures as high as 1,260 degrees Celsius, making them almost like light Chinese porcelain of the Ming dynasty.

Many Iznik ceramic pieces from the Ottoman era still exist today. Called cini, these pieces were some of the most valuable Turkish ceramics ever made. For example, the three lugged lamp, originally housed in the Omar Mosque in Jerusalem, is displayed in London's British Museum. At the height of its popularity in the 16th century, Iznik ceramic art began to be decorated with Nature motifs such as pomegranates, rosettes, acanthus leaves, and peonies.

Textiles in the Turkish household are abundant, alluding to the Turk's nomadic history. A Turkish nomad would wrap and carry all of his or her possessions in textile bundles while moving from place to place.

This tradition continues today when Turkish brides send gifts to their fiance's household. Usually, these gifts are wrapped in highly ornamental embroidered cloths. Although these cloths are much more delicate than the ones used by nomads, they still exemplify the intricacy of traditional Turkish embroidery.