Rumi Festival

Rumi Festival

September to early October

Each September, the Rifa Ma'rufi Order of America, the American branch of an established Sufi Muslim order, sponsors a festival to honor the 13th-century poet and Sufi Islamic mystic Jelaluddin al-Rumi. Held in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, North Carolina, the event attracts hundreds of people to readings of the poets work, Rumi-related lectures, and performances of the music and dance for which the order are renowned. For devotees, music and dance are channels to spiritual ecstasy. Its members are best known in the West as "whirling dervishes" because of their dance rituals that involve spinning in place for extended periods of time.
The Rumi Festival, which spans several days, is held in September (often running into early October) to honor Rumi's birth month and to mark the re-birth of his popularity in the United States and abroad. It was inspired by the famous Urs Of Jelaluddin Al-Rumi, or Whirling Dervish Festival, held every December in Konya, Turkey. The American festival launched in 1997. It is hosted by the Rifai Ma'rufi Order of America, with participation and support from the University of North Carolina Seminar for Comparative Islamic Studies.

CONTACTS:
Rifai Ma'rufi Order of America
P.O. Box 202
Chapel Hill, NC 27149
Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations
3025 FedEx Global Education Center
301 Pittsboro St.
CB# 7582
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7582
919-843-0129; fax: 919-843-2102
www.unc.edu/mideast/index.shtml