INTERNATIONAL TROIA FOLK DANCE FESTIVAL
Our festival is organized by ÇAFAD in order to improve intercultural relations, recognize traditional dances and music of different countries’ cultures as well as promoting Çanakkale and ÇAFAD.
CITY OF PEACE, HISTORY and NATURE:
“ÇANAKKALE” The festival is in the center of Çanakkale. Çanakkale, a historical and touristic city, is located in Marmara Region. The history of Çanakkale starts with The city of Troia where the Trojan Wars took place, continued with Çanakkale victory . During the festival the groups can visit Çanakkale and remains of these two historical event in their free times.
Canakkale,with its natural wonder and historical wealth, is one of the unmatched cities of the world.The many times destroyed and rebuilt antique city of Troy. Alxandria Troas ,the biggest antique city of Anatolia, which was considered by Empreror Konstantin as the capital of his empire; Assos where Aristotle ,one of the most prominent philosopher of the history spent some part of his life; Apollo Smintheus Holy Area; Parion , near Biga Kemer ; Neandreia where once stood the Temple of Aiolia; the Zeus Altar mentioned by Homeros in his world-famous Iliad; the forts of Babakale, Cimenlik and Kilitbahir; the Gallipoli Peninsula one of the bloodiest battles of the 20th Century were fought ; the historical town of Gelibolu; the biggest Turkish island Gokceada; naturally beautiful Bayramic Ayazma; and the authentic Bozcaada with its crystal waters.
TROIA
UNESCO declared that 2018 as a Troia Year. Troia is a city well-known to both history and legend (as well as archaeology), and was situated in northwest Anatoliain what is now Turkey , located south of the southwest end of theDardanelles/Hellespont and northwest of Mount Ida at Hisaronu. It is best known for being the setting of the Trojan Wardescribed in the Greek Epic Cycle and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer. A new capital called Ilium was founded on the site in the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus. It flourished until the establishment of Constantinople and declined gradually during the Byzantine era. In 1865, English archaeologist Frank Calvert excavated trial trenches in a field he had bought from a local farmer at Hisarlık, and in 1871, Heinrich Schliemann, a wealthy German businessman and archaeologist, also began excavating in the area. Finally he found Ancient Troia City. Troia was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1998. Also 2018 is a Troia Year.
THE LEGEND OF TROIA HORSE
The legend begins with a competition between three goddesses: Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Each of them wants to win the prize: a golden apple, inscribed with the words “for the most beautiful”. When their judge, a young Trojan prince by the name of Paris, awards the apple to Aphrodite, she promises in return that he can marry Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world and wife of the Greek lord, Menelaus. Paris steals Helen away to Troy, Menelaus is enraged and gathers a force of ships to attack Troy and bring her back… and the Trojan War begins. The legend says that the fighting around Troy lasted for ten years. At last, however, Odysseus has an idea. He tells the Greeks to build a wooden horse, big enough to fit some soldiers inside. Once the horse is finished, a few of the Greeks climb inside and hide; the rest leave Troy on their ships, pretending to retreat. Only the wooden horse is left on the seashore. The Trojans are overjoyed, thinking that the Greek forces have left, and they drag the horse into the city of Troy, believing it to be a sacred offering to the goddess Athena. When night falls, however, the Greeks jump out of the horse’s belly and open the gates of Troy from the inside to the rest of the army – and Troy is burnt to ashes.