A Day Of Celebration

By Unal Livaneli, *50,000 attend Şeb-i Arus festivities in Konya* - Today's Zaman - Istanbul, Turkey; Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Konya: A total of 50,000 people attended the festivities as part of the Şeb-i Arus commemorations, held on the occasion of the 737th anniversary of the death of Mevlana, a Sufi saint and founder of the Mevlevi order of Sufi dervishes.

Konya Provincial Culture and Tourism Director Mustafa Çıpan said thousands of tourists visited the city for the festivities, which took place between Dec. 7-17.

The sema ceremonies of whirling dervishes were watched by 50,000 people at the Mevlana Cultural Center, he said.

While noting that they worked hard to host the thousands of guests who arrived from other Turkish provinces and abroad, Çıpan said: “Everybody was content with the program. This Dec. 7-17 became a period when both the quality of the events and the number of guests increased.”

Çıpan also stated that the events also have positive consequences for Konya businesses. “If we take into account both the occupancy rates of hotels and the sales at souvenir shops, Şeb-i Arus was pretty profitable for Konya business owners. We saw economically good results. It was also positive in cultural terms,” he continued.

Çıpan also added that the events held at the Selçuk and Mevlana universities in the city were successful as well.

Called Şeb-i Arus (the Night of Union), it is not a day of mourning but a day of celebration.

Mevlana is world famous for his “Mesnevi” (The Couplets), written originally in Persian.