This weekend in my city, there was a 473 year old candy festival. It is called the Mesir Macunu Festival, and it has quite an interesting story behind it. A sultan's mother was ill, so the apothecaries made her this paste of a candy out of 42 different spices. She got better, and since then she decided that every year around that time, she would pass the candy out to the civilians. Every year the people of Manisa would gather at the main Mosque in town, and this candy would be thrown from the roof tops by the bucket load. Some men discovered that apart from its medicinal values, it also helps in bed. That's right, it's an aphrodisiac. The story later was told that after the end of this festival, a man would find his lover.
In more recent times it has just become a reason to celebrate. The students from Izmir and Bursa came to our humble town tucked against the mountain. On the days of the festival, downtown was more packed than I had ever seen it before, which made showing them around a little difficult. The atmosphere was bustling with excitement for the coming festivities. People were selling their goods, and there were things happening all around town. For the first day the students were here, us locals were in charge of showing them around. That evening we went to a concert, and got B-list VIP entrance (I guess exchange students are pretty important). The concert was nice, it was a little hard to understand since everyone in the audience thought their voices were just as gifted as the woman singing. After the concert we went home to get some sleep for tomorrow.
To start the morning I made some scrambled eggs for my guests, then we hopped on the bus to downtown. To start the day off we marched in the parade that went right down the main road. Each of us were waving our flags and chanting along with the crowd. People cheered from the crowded streets, and looked on from their balconies. The parade marched right up to the Mosque where the candy would be thrown. Now, we were supposed to get inside the Mosque since we had event passes, but right upon our arrival, the police opened the flood gates, and everyone bum-rushed the front doors and overwhelmed the police so they wouldn't let anyone in.
So many people were pressed against the walls of the mosque, it was the mosh-pit ot end all mosh-pits. Candy rained down from the men in traditional outfits on top of the mosque. Men on the ground scrambled and clawed to get their hands on every piece of mesir they could. At first I found it entertaining and funny, but soon I came to my senses. Children were in tears because of how terrifying the surging mass of people was to them. I glimpsed somebody who had passed out get hauled over the police barrier to safety. Heads dipped below the crushing mass of the crowd. Our group got separated due to the pulsing tides of sweaty people. Bodies were pressed against me on every angle, you could only move with the tides of the crowd. To put it simply, it was a nightmare. The Rotex we were with realized this and corralled us students, then tried to shove our way out of the crowd.
Once we got to a point where we could move relatively freely, I looked back onto the madness. I found it somewhat disgusting how these men got into such a savage frenzy over something you could buy for 2 liras around the corner. I also wondered how many people had gotten injured today due to the monstrous crowds. All of us were pretty flustered. We did a count, and realized none of us got any of the mesir that was thrown, which made a few of us laugh, and relieved a little tension. The Rotarians treated us to a nice lunch, and afterwards the Izmir kids went home. I find it funny how last weekend I had such a relaxing weekend, and this one was so stressful, that's just how life is I guess. Next weekend we go to Bodrum, which is this nice little coastal town that I've been hearing a lot about. I am very excited.
Hosca Kal
-Torvald
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