Birth, marriage death customs and music practices in Circassian Karaçalilik neighborhood of Bandırma district in Balıkesir province

It is an undeniable fact that the stages of birth, marriage and death, in other words, the customs of the transitional periods, are one of the main factors that make up the oral culture in traditional societies and make it a source for the social sciences. In this regard, the research aims to conclude Birth, Marriage, Death Customs and Music Practices in Karaçalılık Circassian Neighborhood of Bandırma District in Balıkesir Province by describing them from the perspective of Folklore and discussing the results. The family is the smallest unit that makes up the society. Therefore, the establishment phase of the family is very important. There are three important transition periods in human existence namely birth, marriage and death, and each of these three periods contains different social norms. The lack of a systematic study on the research subject, which will be described in line with the concept of traditional authenticity, which also expresses our characteristics of our past, and the gradual disappearance of this cultural identity at the same time, has been considered as a fundamental problem. The model used to solve this problem is the scanning model and it was supported by the field research method. In this sense, unstructured interviews and participatory observations performed with the resource people in Karaçalılık neighborhood were recorded as visual-sensory following the literature review on the subject. The data obtained were described, and the findings were reached in the direction of keeping the customs alive by evolving. The main results obtained on the axis of these findings and from a relationship-seeking perspective are such that the birth, marriage and death customs of Circassian immigrants living in Karaçalılık neighborhood have undergone changes and transformations in line with the expectations of modernization and contemporary life. Music practices in the area being among the customs of the transition periods were determined by audio-visual recordings and were fixed by transferring them to the note texts. It is predicted that the research is significant due to the fact that it is the first systematic study of the region and its contributions to the field. Key Words: Karaçalılık Neighborhood, Circassian, Transition Periods, Custom, Music Practices