The long, cold winter nights of Anatolia have also been the season of a deep-rooted custom that gathers people around the same hearth. Once the work of the fields, the vineyards and the threshing floor is done and the land lies under snow, social life in villages and small towns withdraws into houses, village guest rooms and coffeehouses; neighbours, relatives and friends of the same trade take turns hosting one another on fixed days of the week. Folklorists call these gatherings "traditional sohbet meetings". Known by a different name in each region, they are the "yaren" of Çankırı, the "barana" of Konya, the "sıra gecesi" of Şanlıurfa and the "ferfene" of the Ankara and Bolu districts. Amasya too belongs to this broad tradition; the winter entertainments recorded in the city and its districts appear in folklore studies as local forms in which a shared meal, the saz, folk songs and mani verses come together.

The Question of the Name and the Oğlak Bahçeleri

For some time Amasya's conversation gatherings have been presented under the name "Oğlak Bahçeleri" (literally "kid gardens"). When one traces the name back to its source, however, a different picture emerges. The folk music researcher Mehmet Öcal, in his article "Türk Halk Müziğimizde Toplu Çalma-Söyleme Geleneği" published in 2000, lists the regional names of these gatherings one by one: yarenlik in Çankırı, Kula and Simav, meşk in Gaziantep and Elazığ, barana in Balıkesir, oturak âlemi in Konya, Aksaray, Niğde, Nevşehir and Ankara, oğlak bahçesi in Burdur and Isparta, and tel tel gecesi in Amasya. Later in the same article Öcal also describes the guest-room gatherings of Bursa under the heading "oda gelenekleri veya oğlak bahçeleri". According to these compilations, then, the name "oğlak bahçesi" belongs to the Lakes Region and to Bursa, while the name recorded for Amasya is "tel tel gecesi".

It is not hard to guess where the confusion arose. This list of names was copied into many compilations in later years, and in some of them, where the province and the name of the gathering were written on the same line, the entries slipped out of place. If the lines "Burdur, Isparta; Oğlak Bahçeleri" and "Amasya; Tel Tel Geceleri" are read one line out of step, the name oğlak bahçesi appears attached to Amasya. Traces of the same slip can be found elsewhere in the list; the use of "yarenlik" for Gaziantep is a misreading of the same kind, since both Öcal and later researchers record these gatherings in Gaziantep as "meşk", "sıra gezme" or "oda sohbeti". Any account of Amasya's winter gatherings should therefore begin with their local names, namely the tel tel nights and the kuzu çevirme meetings of Merzifon.

What Are Traditional Sohbet Meetings

The National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage kept by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism defines traditional sohbet meetings as gatherings of groups of men, whose name, size, age limit and frequency vary from region to region, who come together especially in the winter months and at regular intervals within a set of rules. According to this definition the members form a kind of "fictive kinship" among themselves; folk music, folk dances and indoor games are part of the gathering, and its purpose is to spend the time left over from work in conversation and enjoyment, educating while entertaining. Members are not required to come from a particular trade or group, but care is taken that they be honest, discreet and of good character.

The tradition has also been recognised internationally. UNESCO's Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, at its fifth ordinary session held in Nairobi, Kenya, on 15–19 November 2010, inscribed traditional sohbet meetings on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. What entered the list was no single regional practice; a whole family of traditions living under different names across Turkey was recognised under this heading. Amasya's tel tel nights and kuzu çevirme meetings may be counted among the local members of that family.

The folklorist Sagıp Atlı, in field research conducted between 2012 and 2016 through interviews with 372 informants, found that sohbet meetings exist in all seven regions of Turkey but are concentrated in the central and western Black Sea, Central Anatolia, the Aegean, and the western parts of southern and eastern Anatolia. Among the names Atlı recorded are yâren, ateş gezmesi, kürsübaşı, barana, cümbüş âlemleri, ferfene, herfene, erfane, gezek, helebiş, helva sohbetleri, muhabbet gecesi, oturak âlemleri, sıra gecesi and velime gecesi. Similar gatherings exist beyond Turkey as well: they live on as "coro bozo" in Kyrgyzstan, "geşdek" in Uzbekistan, "meşrep" among the Uyghurs, "konuşma" among the Crimean Karaim and "muhabbet" in Bulgaria. This wide geography shows that the roots of the tradition reach back into the shared past of the Turkic peoples.

Similar Gatherings in the Regions Around Amasya

One way to understand Amasya's winter gatherings is to look at the traditions of the regions surrounding the city. According to the material collected by Atlı, these meetings are known in Tokat and Çorum as "sıra gezme"; the sıra gezme of Çorum was put into writing as early as 1940, and that of Tokat was described in a compilation published in 1968. In Üzümlü, in the Erbaa district of Tokat, the same tradition bears the name "ferfene" and is still kept up today. Ferfene gatherings are also known in the Boyabat district of Sinop. In Sivas there is a practice called "oda açma" or "oda yakma" (opening or lighting the room) alongside sıra gezme. In the Havza district of Samsun, just north of Amasya, gatherings called "kaz çevirme âdetleri" (goose-turning customs) or "kaz âlemi" were described in an article published in 1946.

These neighbouring examples shed light on the practices in Amasya. The similarity of name between the "kuzu çevirme" (lamb-turning) meetings held by men in Merzifon and the "kaz çevirme" gatherings of Havza is striking; both traditions are known by the dish that gives the gathering its name. In the Yıldızeli area of Sivas, neighbours who host one another in turn through the winter are known to pull "tel helvası" together at these gatherings in the manner of imece, communal work; this sweet, which resembles pişmaniye (Turkish floss halva) and demands real skill, recalls the sweet that gives Amasya's tel tel nights their name. It is therefore not surprising that Amasya, lying in a transitional zone between the Black Sea and Central Anatolia, should carry the marks of both sides in its winter gatherings.

The Tel Tel Nights

The first form recorded as specific to Amasya is the tel tel gecesi. As Mehmet Öcal relates, "tel tel" is the local name of a sweet resembling pişmaniye, and the gatherings are known by this name because tel tel kadayıf is made on this special night. Öcal's description likens the sweet in one place to pişmaniye and in another to tel kadayıf (shredded pastry); it is clear that a sweet made of dough pulled or laid out in fine threads is meant, but the sources do not state plainly by which recipe it is made today. It very probably belongs to the same family as the tel helvası pulled communally at winter gatherings in the neighbouring Sivas region.

The best-known custom of the night is the placing of a ring inside the sweet. As the sweet is shared out, everyone waits with curiosity to see who will find the ring; the purpose, in Öcal's words, is "to draw one's wish or fortune". The habit of seeking fortune, seen in many parts of Anatolia in the tokens drawn from a jar on the morning of Hıdrellez or in the ring game played with a ring hidden under a handkerchief, was carried in Amasya to the dessert table of a winter night. The source does not specify what was promised to the person who found the ring; the fact that the mani verses sung on the same night dwell on the wish for reunion suggests that the fortune sought was above all one of marriage and of being united with a loved one.

According to Öcal's compilation, the tel tel night is an entertainment particularly loved by the women of the region, and it is women who try to keep it alive. In this respect it differs from most sohbet meetings in Anatolia, since the greater part of the tradition is built around groups of men. Apart from a few examples belonging to women, such as the women's ferfene of the Ayaş area of Ankara, the "sabahiye" gatherings held among women in Mardin and the "kekil günü" of the Yörük nomads of Adana, women's gatherings appear only rarely in the compilations. The tel tel night is one of these few women's gatherings and shows that in Amasya's folk culture women created their own space for entertainment and solidarity.

On these nights folk songs are sung, dances performed and mani verses traded. The only mani Öcal recorded from the tel tel night runs as follows:

Root of the yellow gourd,
its thorn pricks the hand;
my Lord, soon bring together
those who pine with longing

The theme of the mani is the wish for reunion, which is why it is so fitting at the table of a night spent looking for fortune with a ring. In Anatolia mani verses are sung as exchanges between girls and young men, among women themselves, or at wedding and holiday festivities; the expression "mani atmak" (to throw mani) that Öcal uses for the tel tel nights also points to this kind of call and response.

The Kuzu Çevirme Meetings of Merzifon

The second form recorded for Amasya is the kuzu çevirme meeting held especially in the district of Merzifon. According to Öcal's account these gatherings are organised by men and have certain rules. The most striking rule concerns age: apart from the elders, the young people of the area may not attend. When a meeting is to be held, the elders begin preparing a week in advance. At the meetings the favourite folk songs of the region are played and sung and its dances performed; no fixed order is observed in the singing of songs or the performing of dances.

This arrangement, which leaves the young outside, differs from many sohbet meetings in Anatolia. The sohbet meetings of Gerede, the baranas of Dursunbey and the yaren gatherings of Çankırı count the education of the young among their chief purposes and admit young men to the circle according to seniority. The kuzu çevirme meetings of Merzifon, by contrast, are described as a gathering of mature men among themselves. The name of the meeting points to a table at which a lamb is roasted by being turned over the fire. The source, however, does not describe in detail how the lamb was prepared, at what time of year the gathering was held, or whether a head or başeski (elder) was chosen. The likeness in name and structure to the kaz çevirme gatherings of Havza suggests that these two neighbouring traditions belong to the same cultural basin.

The Table: Pooled Provisions, Lots and Bitter Coffee

At Anatolia's sohbet gatherings the table always stands at the centre of the meeting. In the ferfene tradition the meal is often prepared by pooling ingredients brought from every house, a practice called "azık karıştırma" (mixing the provisions). In some areas the dishes to be made are shared out among the participants in advance or decided by drawing lots; on the appointed day everyone brings the dish prepared at home and all is eaten at the same table. After the meal bitter coffee is drunk over conversation, fortunes are sometimes read in the grounds, and then the saz is played, songs are sung and games begin. Amasya's winter gatherings are described within this general pattern; the sweet of the tel tel nights and the lamb of the kuzu çevirme meetings are the local counterparts of the shared dish that gives a gathering its name.

Holding the meeting in turn, each week at the house of a different member, is also a common rule. In the sıra gecesi of Şanlıurfa, groups of friends from every trade hold a meeting with music, talk and food one day a week at the house of each member in turn; in Yıldızeli neighbours and relatives host one another in rotation throughout the winter. The host welcomes the guests, all sit in a circle around the fire, and the long hours of the night pass in this order. Such a rotation spreads the expense without laying it on one person's shoulders and makes every household both guest and host of the gathering.

Behind the winter table lie the preparations made through the summer and autumn. The winter preparations still carried on in Amasya today are a living example: in the last days of summer women gather in the manner of imece to roll out the thin flatbreads known locally as "işkefe", bake them on the griddle and store them for the winter. Neighbours and relatives join the work begun in one house; one kneads the dough, another rolls out the sheets, another stands at the griddle. While the dough is rolled, memories of years gone by are recalled. The gatherings of winter nights and the communal work of autumn are two seasonal faces of the same habit of solidarity.

Saz, Folk Songs and Room Games

Öcal sees these gatherings as one of the principal settings in which Turkish folk music lives, and he groups all their varieties under the heading of the "tradition of collective playing and singing". Winter entertainments such as send-offs for soldiers, henna nights, weddings and engagements are likewise occasions on which folk songs are sung and passed from one generation to the next. At these gatherings the songs usually begin with slow airs, while rhythmic songs come towards the end; when the dance tunes start, the company rises to its feet. Although the arrangement of the meeting varies from region to region, the musicians have a place of their own; the bağlama, darbuka, def, dümbelek and zilli maşa (jingled tongs) are the instruments most often mentioned.

Alongside the music, room games are an indispensable part of the night. At the yaren gatherings of Çankırı the ring game, in which a ring hidden under a handkerchief must be found, is played together with the tura and samut games; at the women's ferfene of Ankara, spectacle games such as the "kabadayı oyunu", in which some of the women dress as men, and the "evci oyunu" are staged. In the Balıkesir area too the ring and tura games are recorded as games that strengthen friendship and companionship. The hiding of a ring in the sweet at Amasya's tel tel nights draws on the same idea of seeking fortune and luck as Anatolia's ring games.

The folklorist and photographer Osman Nuri Yüce attended and photographed many of Anatolia's sohbet meetings between 2013 and 2016 for a project of the Turkish National Commission for UNESCO. The Çankırı yaran night that Yüce describes shows the ordinary course of a gathering: first come the greetings, the seating is arranged and coffee is served; then the music begins and songs are sung; this is followed by a meal prepared in the traditional way and conversation at table, and after the meal the games begin. After midnight, once the guests have left, the "court" is convened, where the circle attends to its own internal affairs. No description this detailed exists for the gatherings in Amasya, but the sequence of coffee, music, meal and games is common to gatherings in almost every part of Anatolia.

Winter Gatherings as a Folk School

The most emphasised aspect of sohbet meetings is their educational role. Öcal notes that the seating at these gatherings ran in some places from old to young, in others from master to apprentice, and in others from master musicians to novices, that in some books were read and discussed, and that in others tales and stories were told. One thing was common to all: the affairs of the community were discussed, quarrelling parties were reconciled, and the disputes of those at odds were heard. The purposes of the sohbet meetings of Gerede in Bolu included, beyond passing the long winter nights well, teaching the rules of society to young men passing from boyhood into youth and raising "brave, mature men".

At these gatherings a young man learned how to sit in the presence of his elders, how to speak, and how to treat a guest. It is told that at the old cümbüş gatherings of Ankara young men could not raise their knees or sit cross-legged unless their elders allowed it, and that crossing one leg over the other was a grave discourtesy. At the baranas of Dursunbey, gambling, lying and drunkenness counted as offences, and offenders were tried and punished within the circle. A barana organiser from Konya interviewed by Yüce expresses the passing on of the tradition with a proverb: "A girl learns from her mother to lay out a trousseau, a boy learns from his father to go to the sohbet." The manners of conversation, the subtleties of respect and the shared values of the community were learned by feel on these nights.

The role of the gatherings did not end with education. According to Yüce's observations, the cultural and economic problems of the region were discussed at these meetings, mutual aid at life's thresholds such as weddings, circumcisions and deaths was organised there, and the bond between master and apprentice in the crafts was strengthened through these conversations. Folk music and the products of oral culture were also created and kept alive in this setting. The kuzu çevirme meetings of Merzifon, reserved for elders, and the tel tel nights kept up by women show that in Amasya these functions were shared out among different sections of society.

Change and the Present Day

Atlı's research shows that some traditional sohbet meetings still continue today in keeping with their old form, some have been updated to suit the conditions of the age, and others have lost their setting altogether. Among the causes of decline are new forms of entertainment such as television and the internet, the spread of coffeehouse culture, migration to the big cities, young people leaving home for education or government posts, the disappearance of shared free time under shift work, and the unwillingness of new generations to belong to a community based on discipline. Some of the gatherings that survive are now held only on special occasions, as performances at events organised by official bodies and associations.

On the other hand, associations and broadcasters have helped the tradition become known again. Associations founded in places such as Çankırı, Sandıklı, Tosya, Gümüşhane, Dursunbey, Mudurnu and Gerede work to keep sohbet meetings alive and run courses in the bağlama and folk dance. Atlı notes that in this way the number of participants has grown, men and women can watch the gatherings together, the rules have been relaxed, and the meetings have turned more towards music and entertainment. Yüce likewise reports that in Şanlıurfa the conversational side of the sıra gecesi has come to an end and the nights have turned into tourist-oriented music evenings.

Amasya's tel tel nights and kuzu çevirme meetings, however, have not gained a visible place in this wave of revival. Amasya is not among the sohbet meetings Atlı identified in 31 provinces, 18 districts and 4 small towns; today we know both traditions only from Öcal's brief compilation of 2000. Written information on how long the gatherings continued, in which villages and neighbourhoods they were held, who led them and which songs were sung is extremely limited. The memory of these gatherings now lives mostly in the recollections of the older generations, and a compilation made in the field is the only way to fill this gap in the record of Amasya's winter nights.

Chronology

1940: The sıra gezme gatherings of Çorum are put into writing by Ertekin.

1946: The kaz çevirme customs (kaz âlemi) of the Havza district of Samsun are described by Bulgurcuoğlu.

1968: The sıra gezme gatherings of Tokat appear in the compilation by Yakupoğlu and colleagues.

2000: In an article published in issue 21 of the journal Folklor/Edebiyat, Mehmet Öcal records Amasya's tel tel nights and the kuzu çevirme meetings of Merzifon; he records the name oğlak bahçesi for Burdur, Isparta and Bursa.

2010: By decision of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee meeting in Nairobi on 15–19 November, traditional sohbet meetings are inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

2012–2016: Sagıp Atlı carries out field research on sohbet meetings across Turkey with 372 informants.

2013: The second part of Öcal's article on the tradition of collective playing and singing is published.

2013–2016: Osman Nuri Yüce photographs sohbet meetings for a project of the Turkish National Commission for UNESCO.

2018: Atlı's article assessing traditional sohbet meetings in Turkey is published in issue 117 of the journal Millî Folklor.

Bibliography

Official sources

  • Yıldızeli Municipality. "Kültür ve Gastronomi: Kış Gecelerinin Neşesi, Herfene (Sıra Gezmesi)". yildizeli.bel.tr
  • UNESCO, Intangible Cultural Heritage: Traditional Sohbet Meetings (Representative List, 2010).

Other sources

  • Öcal, Mehmet. "Türk Halk Müziğimizde Toplu Çalma-Söyleme Geleneği I". Folklor/Edebiyat, no. 21, 2000 (reprinted: Yaren Evi, 15 December 2009).
  • Öcal, Mehmet. "Türk Halk Müziğimizde Toplu Çalma Söyleme Geleneği". Folklor/Edebiyat, vol. 19, no. 75, 2013, pp. 129 ff.
  • Atlı, Sagıp. "Türkiye'deki Geleneksel Sohbet Toplantıları Üzerine Bir Değerlendirme". Millî Folklor, year 30, no. 117, 2018, pp. 88–99.
  • Yüce, Osman Nuri. "Geleneksel Sohbet Toplantıları". B-Mag magazine.
  • "Ferfene: Ferfene Gecesi". Arkeolojik Haber, Glossary. arkeolojikhaber.com
  • Üçay, Aysun. "Amasya'da Kadınların Kış Mesaisi Başladı". Objektif Amasya, 18 September 2026.

Online sources