A folkloric analysis on Rize festivals

Festivals that can be defined as organizations of which period, place, and content are certain, and are open to public participation; contains many cultural elements such as entertainment, apparel, catering, music, dance, etc. Along with the social development from primitive times to the present, the festivals, which have experienced various transformations and changes in the line from rituals to the festival, have gained a multi-layered dimension with the inclusion of many economic, political, social and cultural elements. In Rize, where traces of life were taken until the times before Christ, it is known that very different societies prevailed such as the Cimmerians, the Scythians, the Parties, the Pontus, the Greeks, the Sasans, the Armenians, the Lazs, the Turks, etc. Rize, which is the festival venue where traces of various cultures are seen, was dealt with in our study with its historical, geographical, cultural, and social fabric. After that, considering the differences in nomenclature, the concepts of holiday, feast, banquet, festivity, carnival, and festival were analyzed. In the same section, from the mythological era to the present day in world folk cultures, the Turkish culture and Turkey were examined various operating features of these concepts, grading trials related to the concept were evaluated. It is seen that there is a culture of transhumance on the background of the tableland festivals held in Rize, and the first festivals are shaped within the framework of transhumance activities. In this context, tableland culture and transhumance activities were mentioned, and then structural analysis of the festivals held in Rize was made. The function, which gained meaning as much as the thought of the participants in the festivals, was gathered and analyzed under five headings as economically, politically, socially, psychologically, and culturally in Rize festivals based on the data we obtained. Key words: Rize, folklore, festival, festivity, tableland festival, structural analysis of festivals, functional analysis of festivals.