Kirkpinar Oil Wrestling Festival

In the country of Turkey, there’s an age-old tradition that has survived for hundreds of years and has grown to become a major cultural sporting and celebratory event.  It involves around 1000 men coming together, getting oiled up and then fighting it out to see who the best is. The Kirkpinar Oil Wrestling Festival takes place near the city of Edirne on SarayiciIsland and it’s one of the biggest events in the country.

The tradition of oil wrestling dates all the way back to the 14^th century and the event at Kirkpinar currently holds the title of longest standing wrestling festival in the world.  Its origins come from a pastime for Ottoman soldiers. They used to use the sport to keep active and pass the time between heading out to raid people.  Though the competition is more than 650 years old, it was only officially revived as a tournament in 1924.

Kirkpinar takes place during the last week of June and first week of July over period of a week.  Men come from all over to compete for one of 11 titles in a tournament where only the best will remain.  The event begins with a ritual prayer for two wrestlers of legend, who were said to have fought for so long that both of them died of exhaustion rather than submitting to the other.

Though oil wrestling in the states is usually associated with more casual activities (such as those involving lots of drinking), this competition is dead serious.  These people train all year for this event and they come to win. Thus, it can get quite brutal at times. And though most matches have a time limit of around 40 minutes, the final matches do not and have been known to carry on for several hours.

In addition to the sports, there are plenty of other things going on around the festival.  People put on all sorts of traditional performances of dance and more, there are plenty of places set up to eat and, since it is Turkey, many tea houses are erected to relax in.  All of this is arranged across a giant fairground and the atmosphere is one of open revelry.

This event gets quite crowded, however, so if you plan on going, expect large crowds and lively people.  For more information on the Kirkpinar Oil Wrestling Festival head over to the official website.

Oil Wrestling photo courtesy of Math34 via Wikicommons