Seb-i Arus: Whirling Dervishes Festival in Konya
December 7 · Level 4 · #1498 of 2238
Seb-i Arus, the "Night of Union", is a festival in the Turkish city of Konya that honours the Persian poet and mystic Rumi. Followers of the Mevlevi path see his death not as an ending but as the soul's reunion with the Divine.
How it is celebrated: over several days in December, Konya hosts sema ceremonies. Musicians play the reed flute called the ney, Rumi's poems are recited, and dervishes in white robes and tall felt hats whirl with one palm raised to the sky and the other turned to the earth.
Rumi died in Konya on 17 December 1273, and in 2008 UNESCO added the Mevlevi Sema ceremony to its list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.