Mesir Macunu

Mesir macunu is a paste from Manisa in western Turkey, made by kneading together a variety of spices and plants. It is wrapped in small pieces of paper, and during a spring festival it is thrown from high places on a mosque to the people gathered below. A variety of aromas, including cardamom, cloves, ginger and cinnamon, are layered in the sweet paste.

Blending spices and wrapping them in paper

For the festival macun, a master craftsman decides the blend after checking the freshness of the ingredients, then mixes and cooks it together with apprentices. The blend handed down for the Manisa festival contains 41 kinds of plants and spices, and the finished paste is wrapped in small pieces of colored paper. The craftsman’s process of making it is tied to the ritual of sharing the wrapped sweet with many people.

At a workshop preparing for the 2026 festival, water, sugar and lemon salt were cooked together and left to rest for a day before being combined with the spice mixture. Women at the workshop cut the finished paste with scissors and wrap it in small pieces. Bilgül Arga, who has worked there for 22 years, was also involved in the preparations.

A festival of sharing in spring

Its origins are tied to a story about Hafsa Sultan, mother of Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire. According to the story, when she fell ill in Manisa, the physician Merkez Efendi made a paste combining plants and spices for her, and after she recovered, she wished for it to be shared with the people every spring. This is an origin story handed down through the festival and does not indicate any medical efficacy in the modern sense.

From around the time of the spring Nowruz, the macun is kneaded in Manisa, wrapped with prayers, and thrown from the roof and minarets of the Sultan Mosque. For the people who gather to catch it, getting hold of the sweet is itself part of the festival. The festival also features processions, music and dancing, and the macun is shared with visitors from nearby areas as well. The festival was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2012.

Glossary