This month's festival pick...

Mevlana Festival
Festival of the Whirling Dervishes

December 10 - 17, 1999
Konya, Turkey

Dervishes Whirl to Achieve
Mystical Union With God

Most people in the West are unaware of Islam’s rich mystical tradition, one developed to a great depth by the Sufis and perhaps best expressed physically by Sufi members of the Mevlevi Order, who are better known as the Whirling Dervishes. Jelaluddin Mevlana Rumi, a Persian mystic and poet founded the order in the 13^th century, seeking to use ecstatic dance as a means of casting off the cares of the world and moving to a oneness with God.

The Dervishes were quickly accepted in the Muslim world as witness after witness attested to the intense devotion on the faces of the dancers, and the looks of rapture that would overtake them as the frenetic whirling continued. Not only did the dancers enter a state of trance, but onlookers seemed drawn into the spiritual energy of the moment, emerging as well from the dance in an altered spiritual state.

In December, the anniversary of Jelaluddin Mevlana Rumi’s death, the Mevlevi Order puts on  the Mevlana Festival in Konya, an ancient city in south-central Turkey. Old legends say Konya was the first human settlement to be reestablished after the waters of the Bible’s Great Flood  receded. Its longevity and historical interest aside, the presence of the Whirling Dervishes has made Konya a destination for Muslim pilgrims.

For more information on the Whirling Dervishes, go to the Search feature on your Internet Browser, enter “Google.” When the Google search engine comes up, enter Whirling Dervishes and several dozen appropriate sites will come up.  — Patrick Totty