Abstract:

Mesir is a big festival which has been celebrating for 500 years in Manisa. This festival is famous with a traditional paste. This special paste is very well known especially in Anatolian area. This paste is healthy, delicious and prepared with 41 different spices. Because of that Mesir Festival is related with both health and religion tourism. This paste saved magnificent Suleyman’s mother Hafsa Sultan’s life when he was a crown prince in Manisa. Since that special day this paste accepted as a special treatment. In this article; Anatolian people deep belief, historical and methodical parts of the festival tradition will be discussed in the first part. Tourism capacity of Manisa area, considering this festival as a regional tourism investment, would be stated at the end of the article. For example, total cost of the festival was 1.575.000 TL in 2011(471st celebration of the festival). It is very rare in the world that big budget festivals which based on local people beliefs.

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