Halay is the national dance of

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

and refers to a broad category for all circular and line dances performed throughout the country. Today, it is danced by Turks,

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

, and

Greeks Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...

, among others. Halay and similar dances are parts of multiple ancient folk dance traditions and cultures throughout the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

and regions in proximity. These dances are commonly performed at weddings and festive gatherings, traditionally accompanied by the '' zurna'' and ''

davul The davul, dhol, tapan, atabal or tabl is a large double-headed drum that is played with mallets. It has many names depending on the country and region. These drums are commonly used in the music of the Middle East and the Balkans. These drums ...

'', or sometimes by the singing of the dancers themselves. In the recent years, electronic instruments have increasingly been used in place of traditional musical instruments. Halay dancers typically form a circle or a line, holding each other by the fingers, hands, or shoulders. The first and last dancers may also hold a handkerchief known as a ''mendil''. These dances usually begin slowly and gradually speed up in tempo, and their name, style, and musical characteristics vary from one town or village to another.

History and etymology

History

Halay was originally a folk dance in Central Anatolia in the early 20th century, introduced by

Pontic Greek Pontic Greek (, ; or ''Romeika'') is a variety of Modern Greek indigenous to the Pontus region on the southern shores of the Black Sea, northeastern Anatolia, and the Eastern Turkish and Caucasus region. An endangered Greek language variety ...

miners who migrated from the Eastern Black Sea to the district of Akdağmadeni in

Yozgat Province Yozgat Province () is a province in central Turkey. Its area is 13,690 km2, and its population is 418,442 (2022). Its adjacent provinces are Çorum to the northwest, Kırıkkale to the west, Kırşehir to the southwest, Nevşehir to the s ...

. The name of the dance, "Χαλάι" (Halaï), was taken from the lyrics "σινί χαλάι, ουσινί…” (siní halaï, ousiní...), a refrain from one of the beloved songs in Turkish that accompanied the dance. It was a slow-paced, semi-circular dance, characterized by intense bending movements and rhythmic foot strikes. Dancers would extend their feet toward the center of the circle and return to their starting positions, moving in unison to the accompaniment of musical instruments such as the

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

, oud, zurna and davul. Over time, the name of the dance became widely recognized among other communities in

Cappadocia Cappadocia (; , from ) is a historical region in Central Anatolia region, Turkey. It is largely in the provinces of Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde. Today, the touristic Cappadocia Region is located in Nevşehir ...

, who used it to denote a broader category of circular or line folk dances. Variants subsequently spread across the provinces of

Sivas Sivas is a city in central Turkey. It is the seat of Sivas Province and Sivas District.İl Beledi ...

, Çorum,

Kayseri Kayseri () is a large List of cities in Turkey, city in Central Anatolia, Turkey, and the capital of Kayseri Province, Kayseri province. Historically known as Caesarea (Mazaca), Caesarea, it has been the historical capital of Cappadocia since anc ...

, and other parts of northern Cappadocia and regions of Turkey, each developing distinct local features while preserving the fundamental structure and rhythm of the original dance. The historical documentation of ''halay'' dates back to the early 20th century. The earliest known written definition of the word ''halay'' appears in the 1932 ethnographic compilation ''Anadilden Derlemeler'' by Hamit Zübeyir Koşay and İshak Işıtman, where ''halay'' is defined as a hand-held line dance from Central Anatolia, accompanied by the zurna and davul. However, an earlier reference to the dance itself, explicitly identified as ''halay'', is found in the 1928 edition of ''Dârülelhan Külliyatı: Anadolu Halk Şarkıları'', which includes a record of the folk dance ''Çenber'' (also spelled ''Çember'' or ''Çemberim'') from the

Sivas Province Sivas Province () is a province of Turkey. It is located in the eastern part of the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. Its area is 28,164 km2 (the second largest province after Konya), and its population is 634,924 (2022). Its adjacent prov ...

, listed under this designation.

Etymology

The name ''halay'' derives from the Turkish word '' alay'', meaning “group”, “crowd”, or "celebration", with the initial ''h-'' added as a phonetic development. The Turkish ''alay'' originates from the

Byzantine Greek Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic; Greek: ) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the F ...

term ''alágion'' (αλάγιον). An alternate etyomology has been proposed by

Sevan Nişanyan Sevan Nişanyan (; born 21 December 1956) is a Turkish-Armenian writer, fugitive and lexicographer. Author of a number of books, Nişanyan was awarded the Ayşe Nur Zarakolu Liberty Award of the Turkish Human Rights Association in 2004 for his con ...

in his ''Etymological Dictionary of Contemporary Turkish'' suggesting that ''halay'' originates from the Kurdish ( Kurmanji) word ''hilayi'', meaning "standing up" or "playing", which derives from the verb hildan, meaning "to play", "to jump", or "to lift". However, on 24 July 2022, Nişanyan put doubt on this revealing that he doesn't know the origin of the word. Although commonly known by its Turkish name ''halay'', this category of folk dance is also referred to by different names among neighboring ethnic groups: ''govend'' or ''dîlan'' in Kurdish, ''ḥiggā'' (ܚܓܐ) in Syriac, ''yallı'' in Azerbaijani, ''šurǰpar'' (Շուրջպար) in

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

, and ''halaï'' (χαλάι) in Greek.

Examples of halay

*Halaï (danced by Cappadocian Greeks) * Elazığ dik halay (danced by Turks and Kurds) *Üç Ayak (danced by Turks) *Kaba (danced by Turks) *Afshar (danced by Turks) *Halabi (danced by Turks, Kurds, and Arabs) *Dunnik (danced by Kurds) *Yallı (danced by Azerbaijanis)

References

{{Reflist Circle dances Middle Eastern dances Turkish dances Armenian dances

Dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

Azerbaijani dances Greek dances Iranian dances Kurdish dance

External links