● Alchemy Festival

Alchemy Festival returns to London SouthBank! Wednesday 27 March 2013 - Sunday 21 April 2013.

Alchemy is an annual festival of music, dance, literature, design and debate from India, the UK and South Asia. There are dazzling events for everyone including the mighty Susheela Raman, Hariharan, Anoushka Shankar and circus and aerial performance from the Daksha Sheth Dance Company. See rising stars Harshdeep Kaur and Ash King, and Martin Simpson collaborates with Arieb Azhar. As well as the finest music, enjoy fashion, design, talks, film screenings, markets and incredible food from India.

● Urs/Uroos of Mevlana Rumi (Konya, Turkey)

Whirling Dervishes is perhaps the most recognized ritual of Sufism popular all over the world. The whirling called Sema, while may seem a form of dance, is actually a deeply spiritual exercise usually devoted to Mevlana Rumi and practiced by Mevlana Order of Sufism. It usually has 7 phases, as performed by Mevlana Order:

Part 1: Testifiying to God's unity
Part 2: Drums; God order to the Creation
Part 3: Ney; The Divine Breath
Part 4: Greeting
Part 5: Sema, The Whirling
Part 5: Salutes
Part 6: Reading of Quran
Part 7: Closing with Dawood on all Prophets

Whirling Sufis wear symbolic clothing: cloacks wear a coffin, conical hats represent epitaphs ( Mevlana tombs also have these turbans at the place of gravestone) and skirts mean a shroud (burial dress).

There is a leader (Shaykh) which symbolizes Sun while the dervishes spin around him like moon and planets orbit around the Sun. Right Palm face the heavens for divine guidance and blessings and left palm faces earth to distribute it.

The Uroos/Urs of Mevlana Rumi is celebrated with religious fervor every December and is marked by Sufi Whirling in the Rose Garden at the Shrine of Mevlana Rumi (known as Mevlana Museum). More than 1 million visitors across the world come to Konya, the ancient Seljuk capital, to see the Whirling Dervishes Festival, which marks the Urs of Mevlana Rumu.

Urs is a derivation of word Uroos (Bride/Nuptial Night in Persian) and celebrates as night of unification with God as the soul returns to his Creator.

Pilgrims offer Fatiha at the mausoleum and pay tribute to the revered saint. I had a great honour to visit Konya in December 2010 and it was an overwhelming experience. Pilgrims interested in visiting Konya will find this useful.

Besides Konya, there are many performance in Istanbul all over the year and especially in December to mark the occasion of Mevlana Rumi death anniversary.

● New! Fez Sacred Music Festival

Musicians from around the world arrive at Fez, Morocco's spirtual capital, during the annual Fez Annual Sacred Music Festival. Performances comprise of devotional music ranging from local Sufi chants to Spanish Gypsy. Venues include Musée Batha and Bab Al Makina.

For the 2013 Festival events, more details can be found at  http://www.morocco-fezfestival.com/19-edition-fes-festival-program-2013.php
 

● World Sufi Spirit Festival of Nagaur and Jodhpur

The World Sufi Spirit Festival of Nagaur and Jodhpur, unique in India, will welcome the most beautiful of sacred traditions from the Orient, the East and Africa, while showing off the wealth of Rajasthan’s traditional heritage, a heritage at the crossroads of Indian, Afghan, Moghol, Arab and Persian civilisations, between Hinduism and Sufi Islam.

Ahhichatragarh Fort (Nagaur - Rajasthan)
FEBRUARY 25TH TO FEBRUARY 27TH 2013

Mehrangarh Fort (Jodhpur - Rajasthan)
FEBRUARY 22ND TO FEBRUARY 24TH 2013
 

● Southbank Centre’s Alchemy Festival

TheSufi.com is proud to support the Southbank Centre’s Alchemy Festival, London, on 12-22 April 2012.

Alchemy is Southbank Centre's annual festival of music, performance, literature & debate. Explore the rich cultural connections between Bangladesh, India, Pakistan Sri Lanka and the UK. Performances include Shankar Mahadevan & Purbayan Chatterjee; Susheela Raman and Mein Mir Qawals; Lok Virsa: Without Borders; Shiraz & The Sabri Ensemble and Pete Lockett Rajasthan Collaboration.