What a delight it is to experience May, the month of rejuvenation in nature. Many festivals mark this cheerful time of the year. In this blog, I’ll take you to Hıdırellez, a spring celebration in Istanbul, before coming back to Canada for a few local festivals including this year’s tulip festival in Ottawa.
The Hıdırellez celebrations provide the Roma community based in Istanbul with an opportunity to showcase their (listed under “şarkilar” in the middle) and strengthen their relations with the larger society. The Hıdırellez is an international spring celebration, too. It is on the list of the UNESCO of Humanity through a joint endeavour by North Macedonia and Türkiye.
The legend has it that Hızır (a.k.a. Hıdır and Al-Khidr), a holy figure associated with rebirth, meets Ilyas (a.k.a. Elijah), a celebrated figure believed to bring rain, on the earth once a year to grant the wishes of the deserving. That day is May 6, and the celebration starts on May 5.
Let me repeat. Hızır and Ilyas join forces to ensure wellbeing, fertility, and prosperity. They protect crops and livestock. But you, too, should fulfill your share of duties to help them. Do you want to graduate this year? Write your wish on a piece of paper and bury it under a rose bush on May 5. Then, put on your most and join the Hıdırellez crowd for celebrations. Enjoy bonfires, live music, and dance until the early hours of the new day. With sunrise, dig up your wish and drop the paper into a body of water. The paper swims, your wish comes true. It sinks, try harder next spring.
How I'd love to attend the Hıdırellez Istanbul this year! Quirky Gaye Su Akyol will likely sing about on a rainy Istanbul day.
Hard to find a blooming rose bush in Kingston these days? Join me and let’s fill up our joyful moments bucket with some local springtime events until rose bushes in Kingston wake up from their winter sleep.
The, Kingston's Youth Arts Festival, is starting this Thursday, May 2. This youth-led event includes musicals, an original play, a movie night, and free art events by Kingston-based creators. Are you looking for inspiration for falling in love and living in the present? See on Wednesday, May 8, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, May 12, 1:00 p.m. at Rotunda Theatre. Got younger kids? Take them to see the charming on Thursday, May 9, 8:00 p.m. or Saturday, May 11, 2:00 p.m. at Isabel Bader Centre for Performing Arts.
Itching to talk to birds, bees, and bugs? offers 20 activities this May. Most are from Friday, May 3 to Sunday, May 5. I picked “The birds, bugs and trees of Belle Island” on Sunday. The walk starts at 8 a.m. I hope to learn about Bell Park, a key site of urban biodiversity. We will walk on a flat, dirt service road. Be ready to get muddy!
Wanting more spring sounds? Celebrate the arrival of spring by experiencing the sights and sounds of male toads in search of their special someone at the ! This annual wetland festival promises to be “toad-ally” fun for the whole family!
Consider tulips the loveliest sights of the springtime? The celebrates the seasonal flower’s beauty between May 10-20, 2024. The festival reinforces the flower’s ties to Canada’s capital. This year’s outdoor event displays over 300,000 blooms alongside the Rideau Canal's picturesque Dows Lake. The organizers boast it is the biggest number of blooms in the world on display. That may make the Dutch raise their eyebrows because the Netherlands is. But I’ll leave the debate of who is the best Tulip cultivator to Canadian and Dutch folks. Access to the site, Commissioners Park, and select programming is free! Let me leave you with “” by the English singer Max Bygraves.
May the month of May bring you lots of joy. May Hızır and Ilyas join forces to push your research forward this May.
BONUS: Did you know that Canada is the third contender, after Türkiye and the Netherlands, for a strong association with the ephemeral bloom? The Canadian tradition of displaying tulips started in 1953. Obviously, tulips reached Canada from foreign lands, just like many of its immigrant communities and international students. Indeed, Tulips originate from Central Asia. Apparently, they were first cultivated in Iran in the 10th century and travelled to the Netherlands through the Ottoman Empire at the end of the 16th century. The Ottoman elites’ “tulip mania” was so intense that the judge of Istanbul had to regulate its trade! Doubt my account? Queen’s professor Ariel Salzmann’s "The Age of Tulips” has some bloomy facts. Like the Ottomans, the Dutch seem to have become so obsessed with tulips. Tulip bulbs were traded like stocks. Some rare tulip bulbs were worth more than a house!