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Turkic Cultures and Children's Festival Print E-mail
Families, set your calendars for September 8th and 9th! The Turkic Cultures and Children's Festival: 2007, sponsored by The RainDrop Turkevi, will be held for the first time in front of Houston City Hall at Hermann Square from 1pm-10pm.
In our quest to celebrate and honor our rich heritage and in an effort to pull Houston's diverse populations together, we create a special weekend within a family filled atmosphere filled with fun and adventure for both children and parents. (adults) (or for children of all ages).
Kids will be enthralled within Turkish Kids' World and learn how to play various games of intrigue and challenge traditional to the Turkic world.
Not only fun filled attractions, The Turkic Cultures and Children's Festival will be a learning experience to all participating as we host various tastes and sounds of the Turkic World - from as far west as Bosnia and Herz., Turkey, and Azerbaijan to as far east Kazakhstan, The Kyrgyz Repulbic, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Enjoy the cultural sounds of Mehter, the classical military band of the Turks, or rock out with Turkish Rock Band 'Ayna', see local traditional pottery and other handcrafts made right in front of your eyes, or just spend your time tasting the fine foods of these cultures.

Some highlights in festival

Mehteran:

Ottoman military bands are thought to be the oldest variety of military marching band in the world. In Ottoman, the band was generally known as mehterân. The main instruments are the beat and wind instruments; the beat instruments are drums, bells, nakkare, and kös, whereas the wind instruments are zurna, horn, kurrenay, mehter whistle, clarinet, and trumpet as well as mehter bells like the bell and the cevgan.

Ayna

Ayna is a well-known Turkish folk rock group, which has Erhan Güleryüz on Vocals & Classic Guitar, Can Güney on Electro Guitar, Ferda Orçun Aca on Drums, Orçun Çolak on Keyboard and Deniz Beydili on Bass Guitar. The albums that Ayna relased so far: 1996 - Gittiğin Yağmurla Gel,1997 - Dön Bak Ayna'ya, 1999 - Şarkılar & Türküler, 2000 - Çayımın Şekeri, 2002 - Bostancı Durağı, 2004 - Denizden Geliyoruz, 2006 - Nefes

Glazed tiles

Çini, which is a branch of ceramic art that developed in Central Asia, was brought to Anatolia by the Seljuks. It occupied a very important place in Ottoman architectural decoration and embellished mosques, medreses (theological schools), tombs and palaces. The early Ottoman period continued the Seljuk heritage. Geometric writings with figures, plant designs, and yellow and green colors were used. İznik, which also used to be a center of ceramic art, maintained its dominant position between the 14th-18th centuries.

In addition to the İznik workshops, which lost much of their importance in the 17th century, Kütahya became another center for ceramics in the 15th century, although the quality of its products was inferior to those of İznik. Kütahya-styled ceramics are generally blue, red, yellow, purple and green.
In the 18th century, Çanakkale ceramics that demonstrate regional characteristics appeared. After the 17th century, ceramics began to degenerate. Up to the republican period, we mainly see Kütahya and İznik ceramics, as well as Yıldız porcelain, the raw material for which was imported from France.
In the 18th century, the ceramic arts in Iznik finally died out. At the same period, Kütahya cini reached their peak but began to lose quality during that same century. In the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, Iznik designs began to be imitated elsewhere. Today, the center of this art is Kütahya. Here, Seljuk designs and colors are widely imitated.

Karagöz and Hacivat:

Karagöz (meaning blackeye in Turkish) and Hacivat are the lead characters of the traditional Turkish shadow play, popularized during the Ottoman period. The central theme of the plays are the contrasting interaction between the two main characters: Karagöz represents the illiterate but straightforward public, whereas Hacivat belongs to the educated class, speaking Ottoman Turkish and using a poetical and literary language.

MARBLING

The art of marbling on paper, or 'ebru' in Turkish, is a traditional decorative form employing special methods. The word 'ebru' comes from the Persian word 'ebr,' meaning 'cloud.' The word 'ebri' then evolved from this, assuming the meaning 'like a cloud' or 'cloudy,' and was assimilated into Turkish in the form 'ebru.' Marbling does actually give the impression of clouds. Another possible derivation of the word 'ebru' is from the Persian 'âb-rûy,' meaning 'face water.'
Although it is not known when and in which country the art of marbling was born, there is no doubt that it is a decorative art peculiar to Eastern countries. A number of Persian sources report that it first emerged in India. It was carried from India to Persia, and from there to the Ottomans. According to other sources, the art of marbling was born in the city of Bukhara in Turkistan, finding its way to the Ottomans by way of Persia. In the West, 'ebru' is known as 'Turkish paper.

Islamic calligraphy:

Islamic calligraphy is the art of writing, and by extension, of bookmaking. This art has most often employed the Arabic script, throughout many languages. Calligraphy is especially revered among Islamic arts since it was the primary means for the preservation of the Qur'an. Ottoman Turkish calligraphy is associated with geometric Islamic art (the Arabesque) on the walls and ceilings of mosques as well as on the page. Contemporary artists in the Islamic world draw on the heritage of calligraphy to use calligraphic inscriptions or abstractions in their work.

 

Meddach(stand-up):

Meddachs or Meddahs were mimische telling artists. Meddach narrations are as kind a component of the Turkish people literature.The humorous, usually narrations, which karikieren like the Orta Oyunu certain people types, developed as dialogue, lived traditionally on the lecture and the often extraordinary mimischen abilities of the Meddachs. Still into the 1920er years was the mimische telling art a firm component of the Turkish coffee house culture.

Turkish Folk Dance:

Folk dances have different characteristics based on region and location and are generally engaged in during weddings, journeys to the mountains in the summer, when sending sons off to military service and during religious and national holidays. The best known folk dances are: Zeybek,Horon, Ciftetelli, Silifke etc.

Caricature:

The caricature is amongst the most prevalent and popular of all 'art' forms. Certainly, comic representations of the rich and famous, the wicked, and the powerful appear prominently in newspapers and magazines the world over. While these images may contain many different aims and agendas, the most striking feature of all caricature is the distortion of the body: the thin are made skeletal, the plump swell to prodigious proportions, noses inevitably lengthen, while eyes either sink or bulge. Distortions of scale are accompanied by exaggerated representations of manner, dress, and temperament.

Orta ouyunu:

The main characters of the "middle play" of the City Public Theatre are Kavuklu and Pişekar. The Middle Play mainly focuses on the speech duet of these two characters. Kavuklu seems to be ignorant and confused and Kurnaz is a merry man from society. Pişekar is an educated and efficient old man who is able to see which is good or bad.

Design:

Designs, the result of prevailing environmental conditions, are the cultural language and source of art. These symbolic designs reveal the characteristics of a society in social research.

The Turks continued to live in clans and tribes after migrating to Anatolia. After a long period of different beliefs, they finally turned to Islam but the heritage of the old beliefs, legends and myths are still alive and can be seen in various symbols that are used in the decorative arts today.

CALLIGRAPHY


The first thing that comes to mind whenever calligraphy is mentioned is the decorative use of Arabic letters. This art emerged after a long period between the 6th and 10th centuries as Arabic letters evolved.

After turning to Islam and adopting the Arabic alphabet, the Turks failed to play any part in the art of calligraphy for a long time. They first began to show an interest in it after moving to Anatolia, and the Ottoman period was one of the times during which it flourished most. Yakut-ı Mustasımi was particularly influential in Anatolia from the beginning of the 13th century to the middle of the 15th. Şeyh Hamdullah (1429-1520) made a number of changes to the rules introduced by Yakut-ı Mustasımi, thus giving Arabic letters are warmer, softer appearance. Şeyh Hamdullah is regarded as the father of Turkish calligraphy, and his style and influence predominated until the 17th century. It was Hafız Osman (1642-1698) who produced the art's most aesthetically mature period. All the great calligraphers who came after basically followed in Hafız Osman's footsteps.

 
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