Fourth Anatolian Cultures and Food Festival in Los Angeles

An Ottoman janissary band (mehter) performs at the Anatolian Cultures and Food Festival in Orange County, Calif. The ongoing festival promotes Turkey’s diverse cultural communities. (Photo: Cihan, Sezai Kalaycı)
An Ottoman janissary band (mehter) performs at the Anatolian Cultures and Food Festival in Orange County, Calif. The ongoing festival promotes Turkey’s diverse cultural communities. (Photo: Cihan, Sezai Kalaycı)


Date posted: May 18, 2013

SEZAİ KALAYCI, LOS ANGELES

The four-day Anatolian Cultures and Food Festival, the largest Turkish festival in the world, is introducing Americans to Turkey and Anatolian civilizations while promoting Turkey’s diverse cultural communities on its third day.

The festival, held at the Orange County Fair & Event Center, will end on Sunday. Preparations for the fourth edition of the festival began months ago, and more than 400 people, including Turks, Armenians and Americans, have volunteered to help out. The slogan of the festival is “Discovering Turkey.”

The event is showcasing hand-painted images and replicas of symbolic monuments from Turkey’s popular cities, including İstanbul’s Topkapı Palace, Konya’s Mevlana Museum, Antalya’s ancient Aspendos Theater, Gaziantep’s ancient city of Zeugma, Mardin’s old stone houses, Van’s Akdamar Church, Erzurum’s Çifte Minareli Madrasa, İzmir’s Ephesus archeological site and House of the Virgin Mary, Trabzon’s Sümela Monastery and Ankara’s Hacı Bayram-ı Veli Mosque and Ankara Castle. At each city station artisans from Turkey are demonstrating traditional crafts like weaving, stone-carving, filigree-working and paper marbling.

Visitors to the festival have the opportunity to wander around many shops and promotional stalls set up in the large arena, where they are able to buy plenty of traditional Turkish goods and taste Turkish food. More than 100 types of Turkish food, including mantı (dumplings filled with meat), kebab, sarma (a savory dish of grape, cabbage or chard leaves rolled around a filling usually based on minced meat), simit (circular bread covered in sesame seeds), malleable ice cream known as Maraş and Turkish coffee are being offered at the event.

Visitors have the opportunity to take a photo with Sultan Kösen, the world’s tallest man, who stands 8’3″ tall. Kösen, wearing Ottoman period clothing, tours the festival area throughout the event.

A mehter (Ottoman janissary band), a sema (whirling dervish) group and a group of traditional dancers are also performing at the festival. Also in another section, a man reads the Quran throughout the event.

Schools in the area have also organized tours to the festival. A section of the fair has been set aside for children’s activities and includes a children’s theater, where shows are put on featuring characters such as Nasreddin Hodja, Keloğlan and the shadow puppets Karagöz and Hacivat.

The visitors enter the festival area through a road called “The Road of Civilizations,” where there are several gates symbolizing the Kingdom of Lydia, the empire of the Hittites, the Persian Empire, the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, Selçuk dynasty, the Ottoman Empire and finally the Republic of Turkey. There are information boards beside the gates giving information about the cultures and history of each empire, kingdom, dynasty or republic.

The festival kicked off on Thursday, but the official opening ceremony is Saturday and the closing ceremony is on Sunday.

la-turkish-festival-2

Source: Today’s Zaman 17 May 2013


Related News

Turkey’s Wrong Turn

The tensions erupted into the open last month with a corruption probe that led to the resignation of four government ministers and threatened to ensnare Mr. Erdogan’s family. The government has since purged hundreds of police officials and prosecutors and sought to assert control over the judiciary. It also drafted legislation expanding the government’s power to appoint judges and prosecutors, further breaching judicial independence, and has prevented journalists from reporting freely.

Don’t be fooled by Hizmet conspiracy theories

The March 31 opinion article by London-based attorney Robert Amsterdam (“Why should Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen operate charter schools on US Military bases?”) that appeared on The Hill’s Congress Blog was as flawed in content as it was in character. In his piece, Mr. Amsterdam, a henchman for the Turkish government who has made a […]

Bryan couple joins interfaith tour of Turkey

María de Lourdes Ruiz Scaperlanda, Special Correspondent Perhaps curiosity first put the idea in their minds. Or perhaps it was simply the opportunity for exotic travel. But Freddie and Carrie Komar promptly realized that this was no ordinary tour. “When I started, this was just a trip to Turkey. But now,” Carrie paused and smiled, […]

Philippine army awards Kimse Yok Mu for aid and contribution to peace

The Philippine Army Civil Military Operations Command has presented an “honor award” to Turkish charity organization Kimse Yok Mu for its aid activities and contributions to peace in the country.

Fethullah Gülen issued the following statement on Turkey’s extradition request

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan today once again demonstrated he will go to any length necessary to solidify his power and persecute his critics. It is ridiculous, irresponsible and false to suggest I had anything to do with the horrific failed coup. I urge the US government to reject any effort to abuse the extradition process to carry out political vendettas.

Turkish schools behind Turkey’s soft power in Middle East

2 May 2012 / MİNHAC ÇELİK, İSTANBUL Marco Padovan, Italian businessman and a member of the Turkish-Italian Trade and Cooperation Association, said during a round table meeting held in İstanbul on Wednesday that Turkish schools play a crucial role in the increase of Turkey’s soft power in the Middle East and North Africa. Speaking during […]

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

Professor: Carrying out service, Hizmet seeks peaceful coexistence; accusations are manipulative and absurd

Another Victim of Erdogan’s Wrath

Kimse Yok Mu to build 4 schools in Sudan

Too Good to Be True

Tortured detainee would choose 50 years in prison over return to custody in Turkey

Erdogan to become an all-powerful democratically elected dictator

Is it a parallel triangle or square?

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News