There is a folk saying from Sivas: “ Caysiz sohbet, aysiz gok yuzu gibidir” (Conversations without tea are like a night sky without the moon). With tea servers in streets, shopping malls, and parks shouting, “ CHAY !” (“TEA!”) the beverage is always within shouting distance. It is fundamental to Turkish social life and plays a large role in Turkey’s domestic economy
Turkey is the world’s sixth largest producer of tea (trailing India, China, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Indonesia). Along Turkey’s Eastern Black Sea Coast tea bushes stretch from the border with the Georgian Republic to the town of Rize, Turkey’s ‘tea capital’, and extend farther westward toward Trabzon.
On September 28 (Esplanade) and 29 (Central Market) Latvian residents and guests of Riga enjoyed the real Turkish tea absolutely free within the framework of the International Festival “Colours of Anatolia” with the aim to promote Turkey and Turkish culture abroad, organized by the company “ CHAYKUR ” (http://www.caykur.gov.tr ) from the Turkey’s ‘tea capital’ and Yunus Emre Institute which would like to acquaint abroad to the Turkish culture in order to fostering Turkish studies.
The Festival continued till the 1st of October and was held in the capitals of Estonia (Tallinn), Lithuania (Vilnius) and Belarus (Minsk). In Latvia the festival was hosted between Yunus Emre Institute, University of Latvia and Latvian Academy of Culture and coordinated by a Turkish language teacher Mg.paed. Sibel Burcher.
Among the guests during the Opening Ceremony of the Festival there were : Mr.Hikmet Eren, Chairman of the Board of the EkoAvrasya (EURASIA ECONOMIC RELATIONS ASSOCIATION, http://www.ekoavrasya.net ), Mr.İmdat SUTLUOGLU (“ CHAYKUR ” General Manager and Chairman of the Board of Directors) , Mr. Tayfun Kalkan, Turcology Director, Yunus Emre Institute (http://www.yee.org.tr ), Professor Janis Priede, Head of Department of Asian Studies of the Faculty of Humanities of the Latvian University (http://www.lu.lv ) and others.
At 18:00 there was an Ebru exhibition at the Turkish Embassy and a master class by an Ebru Artist Garip Ay . Ebru is water marbling art (https://www.youtube.com/user/TheArtofebru ).
At 20:00 there was the “Zirgus Pasts Dans” show . The dance group “Kadeş” harmonised the Turkish folk dance with modern dance style.
The Festival had a great success!