Marushiakova, Elena and Vesselin Popov. 2007. The vanished kurban. Modern dimensions of the celebration of Kakava/Hidrellez among the Gypsies in Eastern Thrace (Turkey).” – In: Sikimić, Biljana and Petko Hristov, eds. Kurban on the Balkans. Belgrade: Institute of Balkan Studies, 2007, 33-50.

The region of Thrace, now split between three states (Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey), has

for centuries been considered to enjoy the special preferences of the Gypsies, who have

moved in it as nomads and/or have settled here.

Actually, the earliest lasting settlement of Gypsies in Europe, arriving after long years of

migrations from India, is precisely in this region. According to the Chronography of

Theophanus Chomologetus there had existed “an ardent friendship” between Byzantine

Emperor Nicephorus I Gennicus (802-811) and “the Manichees, now called Pavlikiani”

and the “Atsiganois” (i.e. the two groups were construed as something different), living

in Phrygia and Lycaonia, whereby the latter helped him by their magic art in the

suppression of the uprising of Vardanes in 803. As a sign of gratitude for this he allowed

them to freely move all over the Byzantine Empire, and some of them settled in Thrace.

For many years the dominant view was that these earlier data about the presence of

“Atsiganoi” in the Byzantine Empire had an unconvincing ring from the point of view of

their association with the present-day Gypsies. It was considered that by “Atsiganois” (or

“Atsinganois”), a Manichees sect was denoted, the members of which dealt with most

varied prophesies, telling fortunes by the lines on the hand, incantations, and the like, and

only subsequently it was transferred (in analogy with the similar occupations) onto the

forefathers of the present-day Gypsies (Soulis 1961: 143-165). In the most recent time the

view is increasingly gaining grounds among the present-day Byzantologists that what

was noted as “Atsiganois” in the Byzantine sources were originally the Gypsies (Speck

1997: 37-51; Rochow, 1983: 163-178; Rochow/Matschke 1991: 241-254). This new

interpretation of the sources takes fairly a long way back the time of the advent of the

Gypsies into the Byzantine Empire and finds crossing points with the views of a number

of linguists in the last years about the time, when the forefathers of the present-day

Gypsies left their original Indian homeland (Tcherenkov/Laederich 2004) In the light of

these new studies, such an earlier dating of the first Gypsy settlements in Thrace can

already be assumed with more or less reservations.

There are numerous data about the presence of Gypsies in the region of Thrace from the

time of the Ottoman Empire (14th-20th century). Under the names of “Kıptı” (i.e. Copts,

in the meaning of “Egyptians”) or “Çingene”1, the Gypsies feature in the rich archives of

the Ottoman state and local administration. Notwithstanding the division into two basic

categories of the population (“of the right faith”, i.e. Moslems, and “infidels”, all the

rest), the Gypsies had a fairly specific socio-administrative status of their own, occupying

a dual state, without getting under these two basic categories (including also with respect

of the taxes paid). The Gypsies were differentiated according to the community (or, to put

it into contemporary terminology, ethnic) principle, which was something very rarely

encountered in the Ottoman Empire (though not quite unique). In the taxes paid and in

the social status there was no sharp distinction between the Gypsy Moslems and the

Gypsy Christians. As a whole the Gypsies in the Ottoman Empire on the Balkans came

rather closer to the enslaved local population, with negligible privileges for the Moslem

Gypsies (and fairly bigger ones for those tied up with the army during the early ages of

existence of the Empire).

There is a special tax register for the Christian Gypsies, paying cizye (a tax, paid by the

non-Moslems), from 1487-1489, according to which such were noted in the

administrative entities of Istanbul, Viza, Galipoli, Edirne, Chirmen, Yanboli (present-day

Yambol), Philibe (now Plovdiv), Sofia, Nikopol, Vidin and Kyustendil, Krushevatz,

Smederevo, Novi Pazar and Bosna - a total of 3, 237 households plus 211 widows’

households.2 The fact that such a great number of Christian Gypsies were living a settled

live (i.e. were not nomads), clearly evinces that they had settled in these lands even

1 We are using here in the text and bellow following transcriptions: for Turkish words – the Turkish way of writing, for Romani words –the “consensus” transcription as used by Romani studies scholars, for Bulgarian – the convenient English transcription of Cyrillic. 2 According to the Ottoman regulations, the men, heads of families were obliged to pay taxes for the entire family, or the widows with the same status, and for that reason, in the taxation registers just these two categories were put down.

before the advent of the Ottoman conquerors, when Christianity had been the dominant

religion. Moreover, judging by the listed regions, the Christian Gypsies predominated in

the lands of Thrace, where obviously had been the earliest migrations and settlement of

Gypsies in the Balkans. (Marushiakova/Popov 2001: 28).

The well-known Law concerning the Gypsies in the province of Rumelia (Kanunname-i

Kıbtiyan-ı Vilayet-i Rumili) of Sultan Suleyman I the Magnificent from 1530 confirms

the special administrative and juridical situation and expanded rights of self-government

in terms of taxes of those, incorporated in the so-called Gypsy region (Liva-i Kıbtiyan or

Çingene sancaği). There is yet another special Law of 1541 “Law concerning the leader

of the Gypsy Sancağ”, which, as a whole, repeats and presents in greater details the main

stipulations of the above-mentioned Law of Suleyman I the Magnificent. What is meant

under “sancağ” in this case is not, as usually, a territorial administrative unit, but a

certain category of the Gypsy population, engaged in a number of auxiliary activities in

the service of the army (servicing fortresses, repair of weapons and the like). That sancağ

was headed by the so-called “Gypsy sancağ-bey” (who was not a Gypsy), seated in the

town of Kırk Klise in Eastern Thrace (now Kırklareli in Turkey), and included in it were

the Gypsy households from Hayrabolu, Viza, Keşan, Çorlu, Panar Hisar, Dimotika (now

Didimotichon), Gümürcina (now Komotini), Fere, Yanboli, Eski Zaara (now Stara

Zagora) and other settlements, mostly in present-day Thrace (Marushiakova/Popov 2001:

35).

What is lacking in historical sources, however, is data about the customs, holidays and

rites and rituals of the Gypsies in the region of Thrace in the past. The first work, in

which information about the language and different aspects of the life of the Gypsies in

this region can be found is the fundamental work Etudes sur les Tchinghianes ou

Bohemiens de l’Empire Ottoman by Dr Alexander Paspati, published in French in

Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1870. (Paspati 1870) The author, a doctor from Greek origin,

imparts that notwithstanding his efforts, he had not succeeded in finding either among the

Christian Gypsies, or the Moslem Gypsies any traces whatever of an earlier religion. The

only exception, according to him, was the holiday, “celebrated by their race alone”,

which was not familiar to the Greeks and the Turks, and was called Kakava, or, in

translation from the language of the Gypsies “a holiday of the caldron” (kakava means

caldron in Romanes [Gypsy language]) or in Turkish Tencere Bayramı. We present here

its concise description.

This holiday - Kakava - is celebrated in spring, when the nomadic Gypsies have already

left their wintertime quarters (usually rented dwellings or auxiliary farm premises) and

get together in the field, close to water (a spring or a river), where they build their tents.

Every Gypsy man, the head of a family, slaughters a lamb and invites all to a feast, the

laden table being decorated with herbs and flowers. In the course of three consecutive

days the Gypsies mutually pay visits to each other to family feasts, accompanied by lots

of wine, songs, dances and general merry-making. At the end of these three days, the

Gypsies pay their annual tax to the çeri-başi (their leader, empowered by the authorities

to collect from them the taxes due) and begin their active nomadic season. (Paspati 1870:

27-28)

It is an interesting question why Alexander Paspati defines this holiday as exclusively

Gypsy and makes no references whatever to the holidays of the surrounding population,

particularly when he himself had noted that the celebration of Kakava in Thrace (as well

as in the entire Vilayet of Rumeli), began on the feast day of St George, April 23 (Paspati

1870: 28). The description of the holiday itself, with its key typological features (going

out in the open close to a water source, decoration with greenery, the slaughtering of a

lamb, a common holiday feast) coincide as a whole with the celebration of the feast day

of St George (Hıdrellez in the Islamic variant) by different peoples in a very extensive

Asia-Minor-Balkan region.

As far as the payment of an annual tax by the nomadic Gypsies goes, which is connected

to the celebration of Kakava, this is yet one more proof of the association of the holiday

with the feast day of St George. The common practice in different labor contracts or other

commodity and money relations in the Balkans was that the payments be performed in

the days dedicated to St. George (April 23) and St. Demetrius (October 26) or St.

Archangel Michael (November 8), i.e. in this case the Gypsies mapped out their nomadic

lifestyle in accordance with the economic calendar cycle of the surrounding population.

The payment of the annual taxes by them on these dates was a well-known phenomenon

in the Ottoman Empire, as well as in the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldova. By the

way, with the very first mentioning of Gypsies in the Balkans within the composition of

the Ottoman Empire (from 1430, in the so-called Timar Register of the Nikopol sancağ),

(Marushiakova/Popov 2001: 27) as well as from all the later historical data, it becomes

evident that in their overwhelming majority, the Gypsies led a settled life, i.e. the

celebration of Kakava was actually not related to their way of life (settled or nomadic).

* * *

In order to make more clearly understandable the present-day dimensions of the

celebration of Kakava by the Gypsies in Eastern Thrace, a few words should be said in

advance about the overall Gypsy presence in Turkey. The territory of present-day Turkey

is a unique place, where in the past the three main flows of Gypsy migrations split on

their long way from India to Europe, and where representatives of the three main

divisions (the division Lom-Dom-Rom) of the Gypsies (Turkish Cingelener) now live. In

Northeast Turkey are living the Armenian-speaking Posha/Bosha (Turkish Poşalar, self-

appellation Lomavtik) from the subdivision “Lom”. Representatives of the communities

Karac (Turkish Karaciler), sometimes also called Sozmani (Turkish Sozmanlar), and

Mıtrıp (Turkish Mıtrıpler), can be encountered in Southeast Turkey, whereas in the

border provinces of Southwest Turkey are the Arabic speaking Navar (Turkish

Navarlar), from the “Dom” subdivision.

Representatives of the “Rom” subdivision (in Turkey the self-appellation may also be

Roman, or the Turkish Romanlar, more rarely Oromlar) live mostly in Western Turkey,

in the regions along the Black and the Aegean Sea (approximately between Zonguldağ to

the north and Mersin and Adana to the south), as well as in Eastern Thrace. The

community, as everywhere else among the Gypsies in the world, is internally

heterogeneous. Unlike the other countries in the world, however, here the division is not

so much along the line of individual Gypsy groups (with sub-group divisions and/or

meta-group units), of which preserved (at least partially) are only a few - e.g. Sepetci

(Sepetciler), Kalaycides, Kalburci and others. Beginning to dominate in their place are

new identities, determined by the settlement and/or the neighbourhood, where the

individual Gypsy communities live (Marushiakova/Mischek/Popov/Streck, 2005). Large

parts of the Romanlar have lost their language (Romanes, in the Turkish variant

Romanca) and are completely Turkish language speakers. Among those speaking

Romanes, bearers of the so-called “Balkan” dialects (e.g. Erlides) can be found mainly in

the region of Edirne, whereas the bearers of the so-called “Old Wallachian” or “South-

Wallachian” dialects3 significantly predominate, often called Vlachos or Lachoja, and can

be encountered both in Istanbul and along the whole Asia Minor coast to Mersin in the

South. The latter are mostly progenies of the Gypsies, who had migrated after the Greek-

Turkish war and the treaty of Lausanne of 1923, according to the clauses of which an

exchange of the population was effected - the Greeks from Turkey (mainly from Asia

Minor) were transferred to Greece and Turks settled in their place (and along with them a

great number of Moslem Gypsies) from the Greek territories.

The overall picture of the Gypsies in Turkey is also complicated by the existence of so-

called Gypsy-like communities. What is meant are communities, encountered in different

countries, which, unlike the Gypsies, are not descendants of migrants from India, but

have most varied origin. Because of their nomadic lifestyle, as well as of the similarity of

some ethnic and cultural characteristics, the people living around usually define them as

“Gypsies”. Different such communities can be encountered in Turkey, most of which are

poorly investigated (e.g. the so-called Tahtaci) whereby most often the so-called Abdals

(Turkish Abdalar) are mixed up with the Gypsies (Çingeneler)4.

In the course of several years we conducted field research of the celebration of Kakava

by the Gypsies in Turkey, in the region of Eastern Thrace (including also Istanbul, which

3 More on Romani Dialects classifications see: Matras 2002 and Matras 2005: 7-22; Igla 1997: 163. 4 For an overview of part of numerous Gypsy and Gypsy-like communities in Tureky see: Benninghaus,1991: 47-53.

is the economic and cultural centre of this region). In 2004 we stayed in the town of

Kırklareli (earlier names Kırk Klise, or Saranda Eklises, in the Greek variant, with the

Bulgarian name Lozengrad), in 2005 - in Edirne (earlier name Adrianopolis, and

Bulgarian name Odrin), and in 2006 - in Istanbul (earlier name Constantinopol, Bulgarian

name Tsarigrad). Other settlements of the region were visited too: Vize, Luleburgaz,

Babaeski, Keşan, Tekirdağ, Corlu. The field material collected, when combined with

some descriptions of the contemporary Turkish researchers, have made it possible to

outline an overall, comparatively complete picture of the celebration of the Kakava

holiday by the Gypsies in the region of Eastern Thrace.

It should be pointed out, in the first place, that for the time being a certain difference

could be encountered in Turkey among the Gypsies in the names of the holiday on the

line Kakava - Hıdrellez. According to some authors, these are two different, though

interconnected holidays (Irmak 1999). Among Gypsies in Eastern Thrace, the holiday is

called Kakava, while Hıdrellez is considered “an all Turks’ holiday”, although it is

acknowledged that there are actually no special differences between the two holidays and

they de facto coincide, also as days of celebration (with the exception of the case of

Kırklareli, which would be dealt with further on). Among the Romanlar, living in

Istanbul and in the Asia Minor coastal regions (Zonguldağ, Bursa, Çanakkale, Balikesir,

Izmir, Mersin, Adana), it is generally considered that this is one and the same holiday,

common for the Gypsies and for the surrounding population, called Hıdrellez, and by the

Gypsies of Eastern Thrace it is called Kakava.

The celebration of the Kakava/Hıdrellez holiday by the Gypsies in Eastern Thrace and

Istanbul can be discussed on two levels: within the frameworks of the community and in

the overall parameters of society. Of course, there is no insurmountable wall between

these two dimensions - in which the Gypsies live and in which this holiday takes place -

and the constant mutual influences go both ways, and yet such a distinction can be made.

The celebration of Kakava/Hıdrellez among the Gypsies is confined within the

frameworks of the specific community (usually a certain Gypsy neighbourhood). In this

case there is no difference as to whether the Gypsies are permanently settled or live a

semi-nomadic way of life (seasonal nomadic migrations). The holiday is usually the start

of the active nomadic season, and even if that season had started earlier, for the holiday

all get back home (unlike the situation in the past, all the Gypsies living a nomadic life,

already have homes of their own). When there are more than one Gypsy neighbourhoods

in a town, the celebrations are within the framework of the neighbourhoods, but there are

also places, where at certain points of the holiday Gypsies of different neighbourhoods

get together (e.g. in Edirne, where Gypsies live in Kemikciler, Mengil Ahır, Yıldırim

mahallesı (neighbourhood), Kıyık mahallesı, and others, this is the Kırk-Pınar locality on

the bank of the Tunca River). A specific case is the huge megapolis of Istanbul, spreading

on two continents, where Gypsies live in more than 50 neighbourhoods, and a common

site for celebration is absent there.

What is common everywhere is also the time of celebration of Kakava/Hıdrellez (with

the exception of Kırklareli). The centre of the holiday is the date May 6, i.e. the feast day

of St George (and its Islamic counterpart Hıdrellez), but according to the new calendar

styl (i.e. the traditional date is preserved).

The common model of “the traditional” (or at least what is thought to be traditional from

the point of view of today) celebration of Kakava is comparatively standardized,

performed following a common model, and the differences are just in individual details.

The holiday is celebrated on May 6, lasting for two or three days. On the eve of the

holiday, about a week earlier, there is a thorough house cleaning. Early in the morning,

before sunrise, people go to a river. They pick green branches, with which they decorate

the doors and windows of the houses. Getting into the water, facing east, people wash and

strike each other with the twigs for good health. The maidens make martival: in the

evening they pour water into a caldron, drop their rings in it, leave it to spend the night

under a rose bush and on the holiday a small girl, dressed up as a bride, takes out the

rings. All sing “maani” songs, which are prophesies of their future, and dance. During

the day all the families go out into the open, “on green grass”, usually next to the river,

where each family lays a festive table. Musicians are hired, and there are lots of songs

and dances. In some cases people may also go to a turbe (the tomb of a Moslem saint),

where they attach threads or small pieces of cloth (nişan) on a tree for good health. Big

fires are lit in the evening (by the river, where they celebrate, or in the neighbourhoods),

which are jumped over three times by all, and it is commonly believed that this is done

for good health and good yields. There is lots of music and dances again. On the

following day mutual visits are paid, there are festive tables again laid in the houses, or

people again get outdoors. (Irmak 1999: 5; Sakaoğlu 1995:34-37, Özkan 2000: 119-126;

Alpman 1997: 97-103; Alpman 2004: 39-63)

There are also some elements of the holidays, which can be found more rarely and only at

individual places and which are probably remnants of its older forms or the result of

contamination with other customs and holidays. For instance, a Turkish author mentions

that for the custom on May 6, people go to the river to fill 41 glasses of water, dropping

small pebbles in it and then washing in this water. (Özkan 2000: 120) On Hıdrellez in

Izmir (the name Kakava is unknown there), a fire is built and a boy with a big hat, that is

called “o Vaşili” (obviously a contamination with memories of the celebration of

Vasilica or Bangu Vasij, widespread among the Gypsies in the Balkans) stands by his

side; the others try to take his hat, offering him various things in return (mostly small

coins). The boy takes everything but does not give up his hat, while the others are trying

to steal it from him. If they fail to take away his hat, finally the boy drops it into the fire,

and if someone manages to take it from him, it is he that drops it into the fire. It is

believed that whoever has dropped the hat into the fire will have all his wishes come true

during the year.5

As far as the slaughtering of a lamb (the kurban sacrificial offering) goes, which,

according to Alexander Paspati is a key element of the celebration of Kakava, it has been

mentioned by just one Turkish author (without being localized), who describes the

custom in the following way: “Until May 6 no lamb meat is eaten. The kurban is

performed before sunrise. The largest lamb is slaughtered facing east and before that it is

offered water to drink.” (Özkan 2000: 120). All the Romanlar we spoke with, from

5 According to information from Mozes Heinschink from Austria (personal communication).

Eastern Thrace and from various neighbourhoods of Istanbul, and from the western

regions of Asia Minor, denied in no uncertain terms that a kurban sacrificial offering was

performed on Kakava (or Hıdrellez in Asia Minor), and had no memories at all of this

being done at any time. For people, who had grown up in the spirit of the Balkan

traditions, where the kurban, the ritualized slaughtering of a lamb as a sacrificial offering,

is the core of the celebration of the feast day of St George (Hıdrellez in the Islamic

variant), this has a shocking and incredible ring. Or, as a Roma activists from Albania

imparted, becoming himself convinced during a seminar that the Gypsies in Edirne did

not slaughter a lamb on Kakava/Hıdrellez, “this is not a good tradition, and this is not at

all Hederlezi”.

* * *

During the last 10-15 years the celebration of Kakava by the Gypsies of Eastern Thrace

and Istanbul has grown beyond the frameworks of their own community and has

organically fitted in the overall parameters of Turkish society. During our field research

we paid special attention to this phenomenon, which had entailed considerable changes in

the forms, contents and functions of the holiday.

The celebration of Kakava has remained comparatively closer to the “traditional” variant

in Edirne. The preferred name of the holiday in Edirne is Kakava, which has been

declared by the local authorities a holiday of the whole city and lasts for three days (May

5 to 7), whereby May 6, within its framework, is called Hıdrellez. In the morning of May

5, the Gypsies clean their houses; during the day they pay visits each other, while at night

the citizens of the city (not the Gypsies alone) get together in the Kırk-Pınar Park. They

take walks, swing in the swings, and Gypsy bands play music at several places. Rice is

sold everywhere (this is considered to be the ritual meal on this holiday). When dusk

falls, a big fire is built, jumping across which are mostly young people. Then the Gypsies

get back to their neighbourhoods; fires are lit in front of the houses, people gather around

them, songs are sung and all jump across the fires. At some places (for instance in the

Kemikciler neighbourhood) a martifal is made, maani songs are sung, the rings are taken

out by a girl with a covered head, dressed up as a bride.

On the following day, May 6, early in the morning (about 5 a.m.), before sunrise, a great

number of Gypsies from different neighbourhoods go to different places by the river (in

Edirne there are two rivers - the Maritsa/Meriç and the Tundzha/Tunca). The river Tunca

is most massively visited in the Kırk-Pınar locality, with hundreds of Gypsies coming

from different neighbourhoods (both nearby and more distant). They are all dressed in

their Sunday best; they wash their faces with water from the river, some also fill vessels

with water (which they use to sprinkle in their houses). They break off green branches

(some of them big handfuls), which they are to stick over the doors and windows in their

houses. Some decorate the cars or carts by which they had arrived with greenery. Quite a

few of the small girls present (aged between 5-6 and 10-12) are dressed up in bride’s

clothes, wearing which they had played and danced around the fire the preceding night,

and now they dance again… Besides Gypsies, attending this part of the holiday there are

also quite a few “viewers” (local inhabitants, tourists, journalists), who are taking photos

and making video films all the time. For that reason the Gypsies largely “perform” on

their holiday, as on a stage performance in front of an audience.

During the day the Gypsy families go out to a holiday feast in the open, by all means on

the green grass, most often by the city, near the rivers, but even in the centre of the city

(in the green areas in front of the famous Sultan Selim Mosque), and these celebrations

and the plentiful feasts continue on the following day, too.

The celebration of Kavaka is quite different in Kırklareli. In 1991, by a resolution of the

local authorities, the holiday was declared a holiday of the town and received the official

name “Kırklareli Karagöz kultur sanat ve Kakava festivali” (Karagöz cultural holiday

and Kakava festival in Kırklareli). The celebration has been moved from the traditional

dates (May 5-7) to be scheduled each year, usually during the second or third week of

May (in 2004 the dates of the holiday were May 22-24 - Friday, Saturday and Sunday).

During the three days, the town administration offers a great number of cultural events -

films, concerts, performances, competitions and the like. People from the entire county

get together on Saturday for the holiday proper; the whole town is decorated with

banners, there are numerous stalls, a big stage is built in the centre, and folk dance groups

and well-known singers perform all the time. On Saturday there is a festive procession in

the streets with a figure of Karagöz (the well-known character in the old Turkish theatre

of shadows); a competition is organized for the best decorated box of shoeblacks (the

local shoeblacks are mostly Gypsies). At night a big fire is built in the central square and

there are also festive fireworks.

It is noteworthy that it has not been officially declared anywhere that Kakava is a Gypsy

holiday, but this is accepted as a fact, known by all. The Gypsies themselves, musicians

or dance groups, dressed up in “traditional” costumes (no matter how conventional this

definition may be), do not explicitly mention the word “Gypsy” either, when they get

onto the stages in the town, but emphasize that “our holiday” is celebrated, and the

viewers understand very well what is meant (as everywhere in the Balkans, the local

people know very well what the ethnic origin of each one is).

On Sunday the Gypsies from the town get out en masse to the nearby river, in the

Şeytandere locality, next to a big bridge. Hundreds of Gypsies arrive early in the morning

(we have estimated them to be 3,000 - 4,000 people), with horse carts, trucks, hired buses

and cars. They settle in families and clans on the grass, in the clearings by the river (on

both sides of the bridge). They place tables by the river, and tables are laid even into the

river; swings are hung onto the trees; the young and the children wade into the river all

the time. The holiday feast, accompanied by many songs and dances, continues until

sunset.

According to the explanations of the Gypsies, they were actually repeating the holiday,

which they had already celebrated on May 6 as Hıdrellez, now marking it as Kakava.

Once these two had not been two different holidays, but only one, split into two parts,

after the local authorities had decided to make Kakava a holiday of the town. According

to those celebrating, Hıdrellez was anyway “the more truthful”, a bigger holiday, and

now this was only its town repetition. On Hıdrellez there is housecleaning; a fire is lit in

the neighbourhood; all jump across it; all go out near the river, where they eat and drink

until nightfall. The Kakava is celebrated again in the same way; what has been added are

only the town festivities and the common town fire in the square, i.e. the two holidays

already begin to be differentiated, whereby Hıdrellez becomes a “Gypsy” holiday, and

Kakava - a holiday “of the whole town”.

This change in the social features and functions of the Kakava Gypsy holiday, and its

transformation from a holiday of the community into a holiday of the town does not come

in a void. During the 15th-16th century, the town had been a centre of the so-called

“Çingene sancağ” and the seat of the “Çingene sancağ-bey”. For centuries Kırklareli has

been a town, associated with the Gypsies living in it and in its environs.

The place of Karagöz, the notorious character from the Turkish theatre of shadows, is not

accidental, either, in the overall frameworks of the holiday. According to a number of

authors, Karagöz had been a real personality, who had renovated the traditional theatre of

shadows (that is why fairly often the theatre itself is called after him), while according to

Evliya Çelebi, he had been born in Kırklareli, while his father had been a “fukara-i-

kıbtiyan” (a poor Gypsy) (Çelebi 1928, Perdeyi/Virаn, 2004: 20-23). Now a monument

of Karagöz has been raised in Kırklareli, and he is one of the symbols of the town. A

legend is commonly told among the Gypsies from Kırklareli today (which has in most

probability come to being in the new time), that Karagöz had been born in the nearby

Demirköy settlement (the Bulgarian name is Malak Samokov). By the way, the theatre of

shadows, itself, is already just a memory of the past in present-day Turkey, but its

traditions have still been preserved on the level of everyday life (as a kind of

entertainment for children) in some Gypsy families in Eastern Thrace. Probably the only

place, where the Traditional Turkish theatre of shadows has been preserved is among the

Gypsies of Western Thrace (in Greece).6

6 By the way one of the first books, published in Romanes in Greece, is dedicated to Karagöz (it includes texts of a few scenes from the repertory of this theatre) - Voultzidis/Hasan/ Hasan/Alexiou 1996.

It is very difficult to describe in detail the celebration of Kakava/Hıdrellez in Istanbul.

This is a matter of a huge megapolis with several score of Gypsy neighborhoods, plus

constantly arriving nomadic Gypsies, for a longer or shorter period of time, (not only

Romanlar, but also other Gypsies and Gypsy-like communities). That is why we shall

note only a few cases of marking the holiday, already on a new scale, getting out of the

frameworks of the community.

In the evening of May 5, a big street festival is held in the Ahır-kapı to celebrate

Hıdrellez (Ahırkapi Hıdrellez Şenlikleri). Several streets in the Gypsy neighborhood and

in the residential district, located next to it, are closed; they are decorated (including also

with an imitation of “a holy site”, where people tie up little rags with wishes for good

health and good luck). There are numerous stalls and temporary public catering

establishments, several stages are built on which music plays (mostly Gypsy bands), and

there are dances (performed by folklore groups, to which the audiences keep joining up

all the time). The celebration on the occasion of the traditional holiday in this new street

format, open to “the broad public”, has come into being a few years ago on the initiative

of several nearby hotels, who have reached an agreement with the Gypsies of the

Ahırkapı neighborhood (one of the oldest Gypsy neighborhoods in Istanbul, going as far

back as the time of the Ottoman Empire), and organize the whole celebration jointly with

the active support of the local municipality. It has already turned into a tourist attraction,

widely advertised, and attended by scores of thousands of people (also including a great

number of foreign tourists).

The following day (May 6) Hıdrellez is celebrated also in the Kăğıthane municipality

with the extensive and many-sided support of the authorities. A great number of people

get out into the local park. These are not only Gypsies from a few nearby neighborhoods,

but also a lot of Turks; foreign tourists also come. There are several platforms,

performing on which are Gypsy musicians and dance groups; women and girls dance;

fires are lit (during the day), and all those present leap across them; family feasts are

fixed on the grass and the festivities go on until nightfall.

Gypsies also celebrate in the different neighborhoods of the big city, and the idea of

Hıdrellez being “a Gypsy holiday” has become lastingly established in the public space,

though all know that it had also been celebrated by the Turks, in the recent past. In this

way, it may ultimately be claimed that the celebration of Kakava/Hıdrellez by the

Gypsies in Eastern Thrace and in Istanbul has already lastingly acquired new social

dimensions in our days. In fact it turns out in the final count that the local population has

de facto given up the celebration of its traditional Hıdrellez holiday in order to accept the

same holiday (under its Gypsy name Kakava, or even under the same name as is the case

in Istanbul), gradually turning it from a holiday of one community into a holiday of the

entire society, but already labeled “a Gypsy holiday”.

* * *

It has already been mentioned that the celebration of the Kakava/Hıdrellez holiday by the

Gypsies in Eastern Thrace and in Istanbul can be discussed in two dimensions: within the

frameworks of the community and within the overall parameters of society, whereby the

permanent mutual influences go both ways. That is why the changes in the overall look of

the holiday, as well as in individual of its elements, both in its community and

public/societal functions are naturally tied up into a common process.

From the point of view of the public dimensions of Kakava/Hıdrellez, the changes have

been in an anticipated direction, as is the case with each one of the “traditional” holidays,

continuing to function in the modern age. This implies a considerable simplification of

the ritual structure (in practice - its reduction to a few key elements), the boosting of the

principle and functions of performance and entertainment (going as far as its

transformation, at certain points, into a kind of “a custom-performance”), taking the

holiday out of its natural environment of existence (the specific community - ethnic,

local, regional, etc.), and bringing it to new social frameworks. (Popov 1993).

The transition from a holiday of the community to a holiday of society is natural, in its

own way, because in Turkey the Gypsy identity (in its varied community variants) has

always been conceived and experienced as part of the overall Turkish national identity

(this has been a realization of the basic principle of modern Turkish nationalism, invested

by Atatürk as far back as at the establishment of the modern Turkish state). Actually, in

the final count, the Kakava/Hıdrellez holiday is now “Gypsy” in both its dimensions

(communal and societal), but in a different way.

The problem of the changes, setting in the Kakava/Hıdrellez holiday in its “traditional”

forms is more complicated in its celebration within the framework of the community. A

satisfactory explanation cannot be provided for some of these changes; only conjectures

can be made. For instance, such is the case of the particularly important place, occupied

by the building and lighting of a fire, and by its being leapt across by all.

The lighting of a fire is unknown in the traditional celebration of the feast day of St.

George among the Balkan peoples, as well as of Hıdrellez by the different peoples in the

Balkans, who have the Islamic faith. The lighting of a fire, as part of “the ritual scenario”

is unknown among the Gypsies in the Balkans as a whole, for whom this day

(Gergyovden, Ɖurđevdan [feast day of St George] and so on, or, respectively, Hıdrellez,

Hederlez, Edrellez and so on) is one of the biggest holidays. This does not feature in the

description by Alexander Paspati of Kakava during the second half of the 19th century,

but nevertheless, it is not by far sure, that what is meant is a new phenomenon, within the

context of the overall evolution of the spectacular and entertaining element in the holiday.

There are examples that the fire has (or has had) its place in the celebration of Hıdrellez

by the Gypsies. Among the group of the “Futadžii” (Futadžides) in the region of Haskovo

(South Bulgaria), after the festivities during the day on May 6 (Hıdrellez), a fire is built in

the evening in the vicinities of the settlement, and all jump across it (Ivanov 2003).

Among some of the so-called “Turkish Gypsies” (Xoraxane Roma) in Northeastern

Bulgaria (Provadia, Kavarna and elsewhere), the lighting of a fire on Hıdrellez and all

jumping across it, is just a memory, but a few decades ago this was an important part of

the holiday.

Particularly interesting is the situation of a Gypsy group, known under different self-

appellations: Krimurja, Kırımıtika/Kırımlitika Roma (Kırım is the Tartar name of

Crimea), etc. They lived in the recent past (up until the mid-20th century) mostly in

Crimea, but have now spread far and wide in the territories of what used to be the USSR

(Marushiakova/Popov 2005: 425-444). The dialect of Romanes, used by the Krimurja

belongs to the so-called “Balkan” group of dialects (Tcherenkov 1986: 5-15; Boretzky

1999; Toropov 1994; Toropov 1999; Toropov 2004). It may be conjectured that the

forefathers of the Krimurja had gradually migrated from the South-West Balkans during

the second half of the 17th century, when there were big migration waves from southwest

to northeast. Moving across the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldova, across

Bessarabia, which had been made part of the Russian Empire, and across the steppes of

the Northern coastline of the Black Sea, they had reached the Crimea in two waves: at the

end of the 18th and in the early 19th century (Marushiakova/Popov 2004: 148-164).

One of the holidays, characteristic of Krimurja, preserved to the present mostly as a

memory, is Jagorja. It was celebrated either around April 20, or on the Friday preceding

Easter (for that reason among the Krimurja, living in the region of Kurban, it is called “a

Gypsy Easter”). On that holiday a lamb used to be slaughtered for a kurban sacrificial

offering, while on the eve of the holiday, big fires were built, leaping across which were

all: young men, women and children. This is obviously a matter of an old Balkan

heritage, refracted in a peculiar way through the new conditions in the Crimea. The

Krimurja, though being Moslems (at least nominally, in our time), do not repeat the

celebration of Hıdrellez among the Crimean Tartars (which is celebrated during the first

weak of May) (Kurtiev 1996: 34-37). They mark the holiday according to the Eastern

Orthodox calendar, according to the feast day of St George (Yegoriy, Yagoriy, Yur’ev

feast day in the Eastern Slav variant, observed on April 23) (Sokolova 1987: 386-387).

However, they themselves explain the naming of the holiday, relating it to the word

“jag” (“fire”) in Romanes (what is at hand is a typical example of naïve etymology and

secondary explanation), i.e. the meaning of the fire in the overall structure of the holiday

is considered particularly important by them.

One possible explanation for the place the fire occupies in the celebration of

Kakava/Hıdrellez by the Gypsies in Turkey is that this is a matter of a contamination with

the Nevruz holiday among the so-called Alevi (members of a Shiite sect in Islam). Even

Alexander Paspati, in a footnote, explained that that holiday (Kakava) could be correlated

to the Nevruz among the Persians, without this being related to the lighting of fires and

leaping across them. (Paspati 1870: 28). This explanation is very popular in the public

space of present-day Turkey, too, where as a whole the Gypsies (both Romanlar, and

Abdalar, as well as all the other Gypsy-like or marginal groups) have all the time been

suspected of being hidden adherents of Shiism. The Gypsies themselves usually deny this

in no uncertain terms; they no less categorically set themselves apart from the Abdalar

(considered by them, as well as by the entire Turkish society, entirely and originally as

Alevi)7 and as a whole (at least in Eastern Thrace and Istanbul), they are adherents of

Orthodox Suni Islam (naturally, in its folk forms).

It is noteworthy that the constant suspicions (naturally, unjustified) in concealed

belonging to Shiism of the Gypsies also exist among the Crimean Tartars in the Crimea

(where Shiism is generally little known). The fire in the festive structure of Hıdrellez,

however, cannot be an argument along these lines here, because during the celebration of

this holiday by the Crimean Tartars (usually on the first Saturday and Sunday of May),

the lighting of fire and leaping across it en masse is a basic element to this day (Kurtiev

1996: 34).

Of no smaller interest is also the case of “the vanished kurban”, i.e. blood-sacrificial

offering that has vanished, the drop out of the ritual slaughtering of a lamb among the

Gypsies in Turkey, described far back by Alexander Paspati. All across the Balkans

(including among the Gypsies), the festive kurban sacrificial offering has been the core of

the celebration of the feast day of St George (Hıdrellez in the Islamic variant). In the

7 The very origin of the name Abdalar most probably derives from a heterodox Islamic order of wandering dervishes, “Abdalan-i Rum”, which came into existence and developed during the 15th century (Mikov 2005: 16-17). But it is very disputable whether the present-day Abdalar are their successors. What is at hand here is rather a transfer of the name because of the poverty (a basic “ideological” characteristics of the order) and because of the similar, movable/nomadic way of life.

present-day conditions this is its most important (and not rarely, almost only part, in

combination with a richly laid festive table). The fact that today this element is

completely absent in the celebration of Kakava/Hıdrellez among the Gypsies (at least

among the Romanlar) in Turkey, implies that the answer to the causes for its

disappearance have to be sought in the Turkish realities of the present day.

In present-day Turkey, the place of the sacrificial offering of a lamb (kurban) is quite

peculiar, within the context of the Hıdrellez holiday. On the one hand, according to the

“official” point of view, presented even in the site of the Ministry of Culture of the

Republic of Turkey, Hıdrellez Bayramı (explained as a day of the Islamic holy men Hıdır

and Ilyas) is an extremely important traditional Turkish holiday, whose key element is the

slaughtering of a lamb8. On the other hand, at least in Istanbul and in Eastern Thrace, the

local population, who generally know that Hıdrellez is an old Turkish holiday (regardless

of the fact that today they already perceive it as “a Gypsy holiday”), are categorical that

there is no kurban sacrificial offering on that day - this is only possible on Kurban

Bayram or on some other occasions, e.g. for good health, in the putting up of a new

building and the like. This comes to show that there is a serious divergence between the

“official” and the “folk/lifestyle” point of view, regarding Hıdrellez.

In this contradictory situation, the Gypsies of Eastern Thrace and Istanbul, who do not

want to oppose the macro-society they live in, accept its lifestyle norms regarding

Hıdrellez. The circumstance that “their” Kakava holiday has been acquiring new social

dimensions in our days and has been de facto “taking over” Hıdrellez, transforming it

into a “Gypsy holiday” has also been exerting its influence. This transition is possible and

definitely easier, if the Gypsies give up these elements of “their” holiday, which run

counter to the dominant views of the macro-society. I.e., metaphorically presented, the

kurban sacrificial offering on Kakava/Hıdrellez, turns out to be the necessary sacrifice, so

that it may turn from a holiday, confined within the frameworks of the community, into a

holiday, finding its new place in the social life of present-day Turkey. 8 See web page of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Turkey: http://www.kultur.gov.tr/RU/BelgeGoster.aspx?1C04EA51480895DA7A2395174CFB32E1780C3D9D1D2CA1F8

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