“Spring Market”
Every year for ten weekends from the end of July to the middle of October the villagers of Pınar near Eğirdır in the Turkish Lake District converge on a special market in a meadow inland from the lake to offload their apples and goats, and buy in supplies for the winter. In the past there would also have been a special Saturday wedding market just before the last get-together where the village women (many of them originally nomads – yörükler) would have sized up potential partners for their offspring.
Then mothers of sons would approach mothers of daughters and offer a handkerchief to indicate interest in arranging a match. If the handkerchief was accepted, introductions would follow and a wedding would be organised for the following spring.
By 2012, of course, very few of the villagers who came to the market were true nomads and none were planning to marry off their sons or daughters this way. However, the bartering of goats remained big business and on the 10th Sunday hundreds of animals were slaughtered to provide grab-and-go kebabs in a kind of grand farewell to autumn.
It was a remarkable scene to witness, although not perhaps for the faint of heart. I assume it continues although don’t know for sure.
Transport info
It’s easy enough to take a dolmuş from Eğirdir to Pınar since locals flock there to stock up on the same household essentials as are on sale at normal street markets.
However it’s much nicer to arrange to have someone walk you there along the country roads which are lined at this time of year with all manner of fruit and vegetables. As you go you will see many little stone cottages in which people used to store their fruit, most of them long since abandoned.
It’s not a long or demanding walk but it will leave you feeling that you’ve caught a glimpse into the rural reality of the Lake District.
