BURSA - Many countries including Albania, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Georgia, Italy, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), South Korea, Latvia, Hungary, Macedonia, Mexico, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia-Montenegro, Turkmenistan, Jordan and Greece are competing in the 18th International Golden Karagoz Folk Dances Competition held in northwestern Bursa province, sources said on Sunday.
The competition organized by Bursa Municipality and Bursa Culture, Arts and Tourism Foundation, will end on Monday after one of the participants won the final.
Karagoz is a shadow play that has its origins from hundreds of years ago in Asia. It is believed by some that the play was first performed for the Ottoman Sultan Selim I (1512-1520) in Egypt following his conquest of the Memluks. Karagoz, literally Black-Eye, is the hero of the play. Uneducated but with plenty of native wit, he inevitably gets the better of his gentile friend Hacivad, who is no match for Karagoz despite his education. The show is performed by a single master, aided by one or two apprentices, who speaks for all the characters, mimics the various voices and dialects, and sings the songs.
Legend attributes the character of Karagoz to a real person who lived during the reign of Orhan Bey (1324-1360). A mosque was being built in the then Turkish capital of Bursa, and among the laborers were Karagoz and Hacivad, who kept distracting the others form their work with their humorous repartee. As a result, construction of the mosque took longer than expected, and when the angry sultan heard about their antics he had them both executed. However, the pair of comedians were so sorely missed by the townsfolk that a man named Seyh (Sheik) Kusteri made images of Karagoz and Hacivad from camel hide and began to give puppet shows.
(BRC) 11.07.2004