Şeb-i Arûs – Whirling Dervishes Festival

The Şeb-i Arûs (“Wedding Night”) festival is an annual, week-long December commemoration of the death of 13th-century Sufi mystic and poet, Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi. Rumi considered his death his joyful spiritual “union with the Beloved” (God), hence the celebration name.

The core of the event is the Sema ceremony, a mesmerizing, UNESCO-recognized spiritual dance performed by the Whirling Dervishes (Semazens). The Semazens, dressed in white robes (symbolizing a shroud) and tall, felt hats (representing the tombstone of the ego), perform a ritualistic spin counter-clockwise. With their right palm turned up to receive divine grace from the heavens and their left palm turned down to convey it to the earth, the entire movement symbolizes the soul’s mystical journey to perfection and selfless return to serve creation.