Türkiye'de Panayır Kültürü ve Çankırı Panayırları

Abstract

Although it is not known when exactly they were first started to be held; fairs, which had been existed for long years in both western and eastern cultures for economic, social and cultural reasons, appear in today’s researches with their only economical aspects. Thus; studies examined through folkloric methods, in which fairs knows as “Open Performance Places” where folkloric narrations and minstrel traditions are performed, are scarcely any. Fairs not only boost economy of the region where they are held but also become centers responding to the social and psychological needs of people. As organizations providing people to relive the tiredness of the year and social exhaustion; fairs, where people from almost all ages could find a social activity for himself, are the time periods that participants and visitors wait excitedly. Fairs which people from almost any social class can easily attend, share the same atmosphere and which have a direct influence on the civilization process of the people called middle class are the places of fascination, longing and nostalgia where the long-awaited and sunk into oblivion cultural values are remembered. In this study, on the basis of what fairs are; historic process, economic, social, political and cultural functions are to be evaluated through folkloric methods. Furthermore, the current conditions are going to be evaluated categorizing the current set up fairs in Turkey into regions. In a sense, Çankırı fairs have scrutinized from different perspectives in our study that has the characteristics of annotated bibliography of the studies related to the fairs.