Sema ceremony

E152250

The Sema ceremony is a traditional Mevlevi Sufi ritual of music and whirling dance symbolizing spiritual ascent and union with the divine.

All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Sema ceremony canonical 1

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (50)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Sufi ritual
intangible cultural heritage
religious ceremony
alsoKnownAs Mevleviyya
surface form: Mevlevi Sema

Sema ritual
associatedOrder Mevleviyya
surface form: Mevlevi Order
associatedPerson Rumi
surface form: Jalal al-Din Rumi

Sultan Walad
associatedWith whirling dervishes
bodyOrientation counterclockwise rotation
countryOfUNESCOFile Turkey
dressCode black cloak
tall felt hat
white robe
handGesture right hand raised left hand lowered
handGestureMeaning receiving from God and giving to creation
hasComponent chanting
music
whirling dance
hasPart Devr-i Veled (processional circling)
Naat-i Sharif recitation
Qur’an recitation
final prayer (dua)
four selam (musical movements)
ney taksim (improvised flute prelude)
languageOfChant Arabic
languageOfPoetry Persian language
surface form: Persian

Turkish
mainInstrument ney flute
movementType whirling
originatedIn Konya
performedAt Mevleviyya
surface form: Mevlevihane (Mevlevi lodge)
performedBy Mevleviyya
surface form: Mevlevi dervishes

dervishes
performedOn Rumi’s death anniversary
practicedIn Turkey
purpose remembrance (dhikr) of God
spiritual purification
recognizedBy UNESCO
religiousLawStatus permitted in many Sufi traditions
religiousTradition Sufism
symbolizes remembrance of God
spiritual ascent
union with the divine
unescoInscriptionYear 2005
unescoStatus Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
usesInstrument kudum drum
oud
qanun
rebab

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Mevleviyya mainRitual Sema ceremony