Mesir Macunu Festival

The story attached to the festival is that in the 1530s Merkez Efendi, chief physician at the Manisa hospital, made a paste of some forty spices and herbs to cure Hafsa Sultan, mother of Süleyman I, and that it worked; she asked for it to be distributed to the people, and it has been, every spring since. Whatever the history, the ritual is real and continuous. In the days before the festival the paste is prepared and packaged, then blessed by imams, and on the main day it is thrown in small wrapped portions from the roof and minarets of the Sultan Mosque to a crowd of tens of thousands packed into the square, who catch what they can - a scramble with a great deal of shouting and good humour. The custom is popularly associated with health, fertility and the coming of spring. UNESCO inscribed it on the intangible heritage list in 2012. It falls in late March, usually around the spring equinox.

What you actually see

• The throwing - wrapped paste flung from roof and minarets.
• The crowd - tens of thousands in the square catching it.
• The preparation - the spice paste made and blessed beforehand.
• The Sultan Mosque - the 1520s building the rite centres on.

When to go

Late March, around the equinox - confirm the exact dates with the municipality, as they shift year to year. Arrive early for the main throwing day.

Honest expectations

The scramble is a genuine crush - not suitable for small children or anyone unsteady. Manisa's accommodation fills for the festival. The paste is a spiced sweet, not a medicine, whatever the tradition says.

Nearby

Mount Spil rises directly behind the city; Sardis is east along the Gediz valley.