Çiğdem Day and Çiğdem Aşı in Çorum
Çiğdem Günü (Crocus Day), or by the name of its pilaf Çiğdem Aşı (crocus meal), is a spring celebration carried out by children in Çorum villages when the snow melts and crocuses bloom. The book 2006 Yılında Çorum’da Yaşayan Geleneksel Kutlamalar (Traditional Celebrations Living in Çorum in 2006), published by the Turkish Folklore Society of Hitit University, holds five recordings of the custom: a general Merkez (city centre) record and four from the villages of Kiranlık, Palabıyık, İsmail and Eskiekin. They were collected in spring 2006. The details below follow those records; the book does not show in which villages the custom continues today.
When
According to the book, the celebration takes place as spring arrives. In the Kiranlık record Çiğdem Günü is held every year between early March and late April; in the Palabıyık record in March; in the İsmail and Eskiekin records in late March. The Palabıyık recording was made on 22 April 2006, the İsmail one on 4 May 2006 and the Eskiekin one on 28 March 2006.
How it is celebrated
The four village records share this sequence:
- The village children go out to the fields and hills and pick crocuses. In the records the flowers are tied or strung on the tips of thorny bushes (Palabıyık, Eskiekin), attached to pointed sticks (İsmail) or made into bunches (Kiranlık).
- Reciting çiğdem rhymes (mani), the children go from house to house. They collect food such as butter and bulgur from the houses (flour, sugar and butter in the Merkez record); in Eskiekin, cracked wheat, tomato paste and minced meat are mentioned as well.
- A communal meal is made from what is collected. In the Merkez record the materials are made into helva and given to all the children of the village. In Kiranlık the children go to the fields together and eat a pilaf made from the collected goods. In Palabıyık a pot of butter and bulgur is collected from each house, and on a stone hearth set up at the threshing floor the pilaf is cooked with the bulbs of the crocus stirred in, then eaten together. In İsmail, bulgur pilaf is cooked on a hearth in an open spot in the village, decorated with crocuses and offered to those who come. In Eskiekin the goods are cooked in a cauldron on the threshing floor; the children play the clay-pot game while the pilaf cooks, and tables are laid and the pilaf is served and eaten.
- After the meal the children play games among themselves (İsmail record).
The rhymes
The records give the short çiğdem rhymes the children sing. In general they address the crocus, wish well on whoever gives butter or bulgur and direct a negative wish at whoever refuses; in the Kiranlık record one rhyme says honey in place of butter and then wishes health on the children. The wording varies slightly from village to village. The rhyme texts are not reproduced on this page; they are on the relevant pages of the book.
Note
In the Merkez record the setting is given, in the informant’s words, as the “Suluova area”. The Palabıyık record is tied to “Cemilbey district” in both its heading and its text in the book, while in the book’s rain-prayer section the same village is described as “attached to Çorum centre”. These designations are the source’s own. For the other recordings in the same book see Hıdırellez Traditions in Çorum, and for Çorum’s birth and wedding customs see Birth and Wedding Customs in Çorum.
Sources
- M. Öcal Oğuz and Tuğçe Işıkhan (eds.), 2006 Yılında Çorum’da Yaşayan Geleneksel Kutlamalar, Hitit Üniversitesi Fen Edebiyat Fakültesi Türk Halkbilimi Topluluğu Yayınları: 6, Ankara 2006, pp. 12-16 (Çiğdem Günü recordings). https://hacibayram.edu.tr/api/files/1/Hac%C4%B1bayram%20AHBV/thbmer(tr-TR)/GELENEKSEL%20KUTLAMALAR.pdf