The Telling Tradition of Nasreddin Hodja/Molla Nesreddin/Molla Ependi/Apendi/Afendi Kozhanasyr/Nasriddin Afandi Anecdotes is an intangible cultural heritage element on social practices and festivals related to the tradition of telling anecdotes. It is transmitted orally among generations and is shaped around Nasreddin Hodja who became a symbol of humor and wisdom.
Nasreddin Hodja is acknowledged as a wise person who analyzed the society well and gathered shared intelligence, thought and life experience of people in his own personality. His anecdotes are short and intensive narrations transmitted through oral tradition and written sources, attributed to Nasreddin whose reputation spread to the wide geographical area. Some of the anecdotes have become classic, and the epigrams of these anecdotes have turned into idioms and proverbs in time as a part of cultural memory of society. His anecdotes are intensely practiced in the printed and visual media as well as in the oral tradition and especially in the programs prepared for children.
In the anecdotes of Nasreddin Hodja, the components of wisdom, repartee, witticism, common sense, absurdity and surprise merged firm and these are distinguishing features of the anecdotes. Nasreddin breaks very often accepted norms and concepts, while finding an extraordinary way out of the situation, where he is always the winner, by the power of word. Anecdotes call for humor, satire, sarcasm, and cynicism, to reveal the negative traits of people. However, the anecdotes is a genre with an instructive, entertaining function, a profound meaning that ends with moral, intellectual, and logical results. His anecdotes include relations of different people and their behaviors in various situations. Through his anecdotes, all kinds of unpleasant behaviors are being criticized and judged through humor.
Communities in the Submitting States of The Telling Tradition of Nasreddin Hodja Anecdotes to the UNESCO (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) enrich conversations with his anecdotes and support speeches with his witticism. His anecdotes are narrated easily by everyone to strengthen any thought by giving examples in the dailylife, to convince other people or to explain a situation.
Although there is no specific narrator or teller of these anecdotes, the artists of traditional theatre (meddahs, ortaoyunu players, shadow theatre Karagöz artists etc.) use the element to enrich their narratives and to entertain people.
In addition, local administrations, universities, municipalities and NGOs which have a vital role for the transmission and the viability of the element, organize various activities and festivals annually at local, national and international levels for commemoration of Nasreddin Hodja. Public participation in these festivals and activities is considerably high.
"The Telling Tradition of Nasreddin Hodja/Molla Nesreddin/Molla Ependi/Apendi/Afendi Kozhanasyr/Nasriddin Afandi Anecdotes" was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on behalf of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Türkiye, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in 2022.