International Nasreddin Hodja Festival
5 July 2026 · movable holiday — Why am I backwards? So I see where I came from; the donkey knows where we are going!
Nasreddin Hodja is the hero of folk anecdotes told across a vast area, from the Balkans to Central Asia. He is both wise and foolish, and his jokes often turn common sense upside down. In Bulgaria a similar spirit is found in Hitar Petar (Clever Peter); the two are often linked in popular memory, though they are separate characters. Akşehir in Turkey is the town where, by tradition, the Hodja is buried, and each summer it hosts an international festival in his honour. The programme usually includes parades, theatre, music, exhibitions and contests of jokes and cartoons, with guests from many countries. The exact dates vary, but the festival is traditionally held in the first half of July. It is not tied to a particular celestial event; rather, it invites us to look at things from the opposite side, just like the Hodja on his donkey.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver figure made of luminous dots and thin connecting lines, like a constellation moving across the night sky: a turbaned sage sitting backwards on a small donkey, with a faint trail of starlight behind them
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