Melopoetic Matters in Alevi-Bektashi Nowruz Celebrations

On March 21, the day when night and day are equal according to the position of the earth in the face of the sun, new year and spring celebrations were being celebrated in the northern hemisphere. In ancient times, March 21 had been celebrated with festivals organized in the name of gods of abundance and plenitude who died and revived as Akitu in Babel and Prulliyas in Anatolia, around the conflicts of darkness-brightness, summer-winter, birth-death, scarcity-abundance in the mythology. March 21, in this geographical and cultural environment extending from Ancient Egypt to Mesopotamia, from Anatolia to Iran, from India to China and to Rome afterwards, had been commemorated with concepts such asresurrection, rising, equality, peace, salvation and freedom. It is also celebrated in Turkey. Nowruz, which is performed based on the birth of Hazrat Ali, the new year and welcoming of the spring, especially as a ritual of Ayin-i Cem in the community of Alevi and Bektashi, led to creativity in fields of art and culture. Nawruz, led to creativity in many other fields of culture and art such as literature, theatre, music, dance, miniature, painting, gravure, sculpture, sport, philosophy, food, faith thad been subject to works of poets such as Ömer Hayyam, Nizami Gencevi, Mela-i Ciziri, Nesimi, Pir Sultan, Ahmed-i Xani et al. from the 13-14th century’s divan and folk literature. The creativity of Nawruz which is reflected on the literature and music is performed as Nevruziye Poems. We analysed the literary and musical styles of these poems and presented them as a table. As we have seen, Nevruziye poems are mainly based on Nawruz Maqam determined by Safiüddin from Urmia, in the history. These tunes based on Dügâh (La) pitch are on today’s Hüseyni Aşiran and Şur maqam. Nawruz Maqam in the history is the same maqam as Hüseyni Aşiran and Şur maqam. In other words, Nevruziye poems of Nawruz ritual are Koşma form in the literature form and they are on Nawruz Maqam musically.