Festivals & Days

Mar 16

Halabja Memorial Day

Halabja Memorial Day — 16 March — commemorates the most devastating chemical attack on civilians in modern history, when Saddam Hussein's regime bombed the town of Halabja with sarin and mustard gas in 1988 during the Anfal campaign, killing five thousand inhabitants in a single afternoon and leaving thousands more with permanent injuries. On this day shops close across Iraqi Kurdistan, flags fly at half-staff, and survivors and officials visit the mass grave and the Halabja Monument at the entrance to the town. Symposia and poetry readings are held, and Kurdish poets recite elegies. International tribunals later recognised the Halabja attack as an act of genocide. The day is not celebrated but observed — a memorial for the dead, and a reminder that wounded history will not be forgotten.

Mar 21

Newroz

Newroz — 'New Day' — is the Kurdish New Year and the most important festival of the year, celebrated on 21 March with the vernal equinox. For Kurds it is much more than a calendar date: it is the renewal of the bond with the land and the commemoration of the legend of Kawa the Blacksmith, who killed the tyrant Zahhak and lit the fires of liberty on the mountain tops. Festivities open on the eve of 20 March: huge bonfires are lit on every peak and in every square, and the young leap over them in a rite of release from the past year's sorrows. Kurds put on their finest traditional clothes and dance the govend in long open circles in Erbil, Diyarbakır, Mahabad and Afrîn. In Iraqi and Iranian Kurdistan it is an official public holiday; in Turkey the celebration was banned for decades and thousands were arrested, before it was partially permitted in recent years.

Apr 17

Çarşema Sor (Yazidi New Year)

The Red Wednesday — Çarşema Sor — is the Yazidi New Year, celebrated on the first Wednesday of the eastern month of April according to the old calendar. Yazidi tradition holds that on this day the angel Tawûsî Melek descended to earth: the planet trembled with joy, flowers opened, and the sun first shone on Kurdish soil. Preparations begin before dawn: eggs are dyed in vivid colours, a symbol of renewed life and of the first seeds of creation; they are pressed to the doorposts after boiling, and shared among the family. Special dishes of yellow rice are prepared, and families visit the graves of relatives on the morning of the feast. At Lalish, the holiest Yazidi site, special prayers are offered and the Baba Sheikh blesses the entire community. Since the Sinjar tragedy of 2014 the day has become a double symbol — of life, and of resistance.

Oct 6

Jêmaiya (Yazidi Pilgrimage to Lalish)

Jêmaiya — the 'Feast of the Assembly' — is the Yazidis' most important communal festival, held annually between 6 and 13 October in the sacred valley of Lalish northeast of Mosul. Thousands of Yazidis from Iraq, Syria, Armenia and the European diaspora make pilgrimage to perform their rites at the home of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir. The rites include the washing of the threshold with water from the 'Kaniya Spî' — the White Spring — the placing of red cloth amulets around children's necks for protection, and the ritual procession around the shrine of Sheikh Adi to special chants. Animals are sacrificed and the meat distributed to the poor, and 'samâ' chanting circles are held to the rhythm of drum and zurna. After the 2014 genocide, Yazidis have returned to celebrate Jêmaiya as a collective act of resistance — a public proof that the religion endures.

Dec 17

Kurdish Flag Day

Kurdish Flag Day — 17 December — commemorates the first official hoisting of the present Kurdistan flag with its twenty-one-rayed sun, adopted by the short-lived Republic of Ararat on 17 December 1927, the first internationally-recognised Kurdish state. The flag was later taken up by the Republic of Mahabad in 1946 and by Iraqi Kurdistan in 1992 by act of parliament. Its three bands carry distinct meanings: red for the blood shed for freedom, white for peace and equality, green for the fertility of the Kurdish land and its mountains; the sun at the centre evokes the ancient Kurdish religion and the sun-worship of the Medes, the ancestors of the Kurds. On this day flags fly from every government building in the Kurdistan Region, and processions are held in the streets where people wear the colours of the flag.