Perceptions and Attitudes of Local Community Concerning Historical and Cultural Properties of Traditional Fairs in Canakkale

A lot of trade and market places, which reflect economic, cultural and functional properties, have emerged in different parts of the World. Without doubt, traditional fairs are among the most colorful and lasting ones among these samples of the trade history. Traditional fairs are organizations in the form of livestock and commodity market, which are set up at county centers, and very few at villages, for a period of time. Besides serving as means of a tool that provides supplies to the economic needs of the society, they also provided entertainment, social and cultural service. Some of these traditional fairs, especially the ones which were set up at South Marmara and Thrace Regions and which lasted from the time of Ottaman Empire until today, had remarkable importance. Some of the big and long-established traditional fairs of Canakkale region managed to last and survive until today successfully. After 1980s, some of fairs disappeared and some of them transformed into entertainment and trade fairs or festivals with the effect of the globalization process in Turkey. Only a few of the traditional fairs managed to survive until today without major transformation. Canakkale province, where is the topic of this research, has 14 traditional fairs which are set up at 11 different places annually, and is among the provinces which have the highest quantity of traditional fairs in Turkey. The goal of this research is to determine the recognition level of the history and cultural characteristics of these traditional fairs in Canakkale by its local people and is to evaluate the social, cultural & residential memory of local people regarding these traditional fairs. This research is based on field studies, surveys and interviews which were done at Canakkale central, Ayvacik, Can counties and Yenice counties' Akcakoyun town on May and June 2018. The findings of this research show that surviving fairs in Canakkale have an important place in the cultural memory of the local community. However, it is also determined that local community's knowledge about the past of the these traditional fairs, and their knowledge about the environmental and cultural transformation at surrounding of these traditional fairs are very limited. It is also determined that transformation of knowledge about the local environment and local history of these fairs from one generation to the next is very limited.