The Şeb-i Arûs (“Wedding Night”) festival is an annual commemoration of the death of Sufi mystic and poet Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi. Its most famous feature is the Sema ceremony, the mesmerizing, UNESCO-recognized spiritual dance performed by the Whirling Dervishes. During the Sema, dervishes in white robes and tall hats spin counter-clockwise, with their right palm turned up to receive divine grace and their left palm turned down to convey it to the earth.

The Selçuk Camel Wrestling Festival (Deve Güreşi) is an ancient Turkish sport where decorated male Tülü camels are incited to wrestle for dominance by the presence of a female during mating season. The main contest is preceded on the day before by a colorful town parade and a formal camel beauty pageant, all part of a vibrant, carnival-like celebration.

Every July, the small Anatolian town of Akşehir laughs in the name of its most famous son: folk satirist Nasreddin Hodja. Watch town criers drum the festival awake, the Hodja ride his donkey backwards, and comedians churn a river into “butter” shouting “Ya tutarsa!” – plus folk dances from several nations and one of the world’s top cartoon contests.