Hoca Nasreddin wins over children's hearts

A literary evening dedicated to Hoca Nasreddin, a satirical Sufi populist philosopher and wise man who is believed to have lived during the Middle Ages, was held in Tallinn, Estonia, at Lira Ethnic Minorities House.

The evening included a quiz, where children showed their paintings, listened funny stories and anecdotes about Hoca Nasreddin and tasted original oriental sweets.

Nasreddin Hoca was a philosopher, wise, witty man with a good sense of humor. His stories have been told almost everywhere in the world. Nasreddin Hoca was probably born in 1208 in Hortu village near town Sivrihisar (near Afyon) in the west part of Central Anatolia. Today, Nasreddin stories are told in a wide variety of regions, and have been translated into many languages. In many regions, Nasreddin is a major part of the culture. Nasreddin often appears as a whimsical character of a large Azeri, Albanian, Arab, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Greek, Chinese, Persian, Romanian, Serbian, Turkish and other countries' folk traditions.

The year 1996 was proclaimed "Nasreddin Hoca year" by UNESCO.


/AzerTAc/