Photos

A photo just to inform about an interesting custom, maybe more ancient than the pilgrimage event related to it : this was taken in the vicinity of HACIBEKTAS (Wiki ; and there are interesting links to "Bektashism" too !) [Also reltated to the ALEVI culture] during the big festival which happened for only 2 days and which attracted a lot of Roma families.

... This is what people told me on the spot about the custom (different from the text below) : if one succeeds in passing through a narrow and uneven hole in the rock from a natural cave that lies inside the mountain, that means that the person has a clear heart and has not told (too many) lies in the past year ; the test is supposed to be passed every year. Strangely, it seemed to be specially a women's business although there were plenty of males around ; maybe the men were afraid of the truth ? ;o))

Mostly Roma families around her. There was a crowd surrounding the woman and also many people waiting in the cave their turn to pass through the same little hole...

(A quote from this page : "Alawi-Bektasi sect of Islam is based mainly on the ideology of having the human beings in the center of all and with its [sic] simplistic (and easy-to-understand) philosophy, it propogates for beeing a good person with a proper life.
(...)
By driving few minutes from the town center , you come to a type of open-air museum with an amphi-theatre and a "cilehane". "Cilehane" is a small cave and if you can pass through the small hole, this means that you are free from your sins. I could not manage this, possibly because I had a thick coat on me!"

(:-)))) (NB : Amusing, this latest remark ; I did not even try, I must say ; it was very hot and I had not the patience to wait for my turn, anyway accompanying 2 photographers :))