Arez Andaryari
20 March 2021
Feasts and ceremonies are a symbol of the national and religious identity of each nation. The Kurds call the first day of spring as Newroz’s Day and the beginning of the New Year. Newroz is coincident with special ceremonies and religious ceremonies that have been remembered as the greatest Kurdish festival from time immemorial to the present day.
By participating in Newroz, the Kurdish people, in accordance with the immemorial mores and rituals, symbolically articulate their sympathy and compassion. Accordingly, at least every year they renovate their relationship and covenant with their ancestors, historical legacies, public spirit and patriotism, and award a new spirit of the historic traditions.
The future of Kurdistan’s culture and civilisation depends on the strengths or weaknesses of the geographical cultures’ grain. Although, many of the ancient Kurdish mores have crossed the borders of Kurdistan and spread throughout the entire Middle East, the continued acceptance of Kurdish culture inside and outside the borders of Kurdistan is linked to and valued by Kurdish culture and civilization, and even internal and external relations are regulated on this fundamental.
Newroz is a very ancient and historic more that is run by the Kurds and other nations in the region in various ways, and its origins go back to ancient ages. Newroz Feast has a lengthy background and is one of the oldest human festivals. According to studies of that ground, the oldest humans on Earth, when they were living in caves, celebrated the first day of spring as festival. The fire and, sun and brightness are blessed by the Mitraies, the Zoroastrians and Yazidies.
Some commentators state that on that day, people “discovered the fire and acted of dance and hilarity” and called it “Newroz”. Kurds in all divided parts of Kurdistan, such as mores celebrate Newroz as the first day of the New Year and welcome spring. Newroz is the first day of the month of Khaklewa (Farvardin) = (21 March-20 April), which is derived from the name of Ahuramazda. In most of the regions where Newroz is celebrated, except a few villages in the Hawraman region, the first day of the month of Khakalewa is indicated as Newroz.
In the Hawraman area, there are several specific villages that Newroz starts spring sooner than the general climate of the Hawraman region, and on the occasion of the change in the weather and the end of snow, a month before the general New Year of Kurdistan, they celebrate Newroz on the first Wednesday of Rashamma (20 February-20 March). As Newroz is known Mitra’s Newroz in this region these villages include Chashmier, Devaznaw and Palngan.
The ancestors believed that the “holy souls” would visit their loved ones on earth in the month of Newroz, so they set fire and adorned it with the “seven blue feast” and were seated around it. Therefore, a few days before the advent of the New Year, people start renovating their homes and wearing new clothes and go to celebrate and welcome Newroz with fire. There are many various views regarding the background of Newroz. There is no doubt that the eras before the advent of Zoroastrian philosophy Newroz was celebrated by the people of Kurdistan (Zagros and between two waters-rivers).
As the grain of fire was differed from the other three balls and was ascended to the sky, it became one of the main necessities of life and protection, and there was a special place by the people that the opening of the fire on the first day of spring, belongs to those thoughts. According to some sources, the feast of Newroz is the same festival of resurrection Dammuz (the muzzle of the God of the Somarians is July).
According to the Somarian faith, the Dammuz (muzzle) of the God six months as a punishment goes to the inner life, and on Newroz’s day, which concurrent the first day of the first month of the Somarian’s New Year, its Dammuz (muzzle) would revive. That resurrection has religious and natural mythological dimension, because on this day, the day and night become equal and the year would revive. Therefore, the day is indicated as the first day of the New Year and the oldest historical calendar (Somarians) begins there.
The Somarian calendar (revival) of Dammuz (muzzle) belongs to twelve to fifteen thousand years BC, which coincides with the Middle Stone Age. Around the Shanadar Cave, and with the rise of the first village of the Middle Stone Age of agriculture, the village of Zaviachame, which its history dates revert to fifteen thousand BC. It is the beginning of agriculture, caves, and village-building, the beginning of an important stage of civilization, and from there, the humanity paces toward another stage of life, which is very different from the Middle Ages. That is the same changes and developments in the region that led to the formation of the city of Hasankeyfin in northern Kurdistan twelve thousand years ago before currently.
The convent of Navoke and the underground city of Derinkuyu dates revert to more than twelve thousand years ago BC. These masonries are quarries and quarries that we can call “The Masonry of Stone Age”. If we observe attentively, it is clear that the Gre Navke is a very large worship in the form of a circle that symbolises of the sun.
The same holly grain is found in the Mitrai’s religion and later Zoroastrianism, etc…, as well as in the underground city of Derinkuyu, which seems to be the underground city of North Derinkuyu, the same world under the story of Ashtar and Dammuz (muzzle). In which all those who go down will be punished to cross seven doors, which this tells us; the city of Derinkuyu is the same world under the Somarian’s story.
This allows us an opportunity to say: the worships are the place and the geography of the ceremony goes down of the Dammuz (muzzle) and the day (Newroz) resurrecting. It demonstrates that the brightness of Newroz Feast is the same as the life of the muzzle which is known as (Zagmok). Dammuz (muzzle) is one of the oldest and important story of Somaries.
According to the most of experts and historian of Kurdistan and East the Somarians are who moved to down, and they began the other stage of the civilisations. When they went down, they did not evacuate Kurdistan, as a proof, continuously the archaeological places of Somarians have been and would be found, which they are of before going down and after going down. Therefore, some historians of the region identify the omarians as the ancestors of the Kurds, and even some of them say: “The Somarians are the ones who came out from the Shanadar cave”.
All of those proofs tell us that Newroz is a Somarian’s native feast, and on the day of the resurrection of the Dammuz (muzzle), that feast is celebrated and blessed and will be celebrated continuously. This festival has appeared in Kurdistan and has spread all over the world from Kurdistan.
Since the Somarian’s civilisation and culture had an influence on all the nations and countries around and around the world. Therefore, (Guti, Mitani, Elamiti, Madi, Kardukhies, etc. all the tribes and groups that in history, established the historical process of creating Kurdish development), have celebrated this festival. Except the Kurds, BC, as well as in the Somarian, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian periods, Newroz was celebrated, and which history defines for us that the (Babylonian Newroz), and in the Assyrian era it was also called Akito.
It was usual that this global festival has reached every country and among every nation, so they have adapted to their culture too, but have never been able to change its origin history. In the aftermath continuously of the Somarian’s uprising and the history of the post-Somarian, some sources have mentioned that Zardasht (Zoroastrian) has defined in the beginning of spring by himself as well. As mentioned, the division of the year into the fifth century BC, on the basis of the two feasts of Newroz and Mehragan, was a year and two seasons.
According to the historian’s scripts, Zoroastrian religious leaders prepared a calendar of Hataw (Solar- solar year) 485 years before BC, and in that year four seasons of the year were determined. The calendar of the Mazdayesna of (Zoroastrianism) was formed in 485 years before BC. This calendar Hataw (Solar- solar year) that begins with the equality of the night and the day of spring, and it had 365, which are divided into 12 months of 30 days, but the 5 remained days of the year which are known as Kabisa are divided at the end of the year.
(These five days in the Kurdish account are known as Panjatar). The Hataw year is 365 days and 6 hours. If we calculate a year for 365 days, a quarter of a night and a day will be diminished. In 120 years, this quarter of the day and night will complete a month. At the beginning, when they were counting 30 days for a month, they were counting the five days as Panjatar five days at the end of the year. Then later they solved the problem by dividing the five days over the months of spring and summer.
However, the problem of 5 hours and 48 minutes and a few seconds, which means the quarter night and days would become every four years the Newroz Feast would be delayed and not to be celebrated at the beginning of spring. Thus, it should have been calculated that once every 120 years, one year would be counted as 13 months, which would be known as Kabisa year. This Newroz Feast’s exchange in the Sasanian era was as normal as so, and they accepted this exchange as there was no other alternative. For example; in year 300 of Christianity calendar the Newroz’s Feast on 7th September, in 400 of Christianity calendar on 12th August, in 500 of Christianity calendar on 19th, in 600 of Christianity calendar on 24th June and finally in 632 of Christianity calendar on 16th June was celebrated.
At this point we can see that the Newroz’s feast was celebrated on 22nd March 485 of Christianity calendar, and in 632 was celebrated on 16th June, which exactly 9 months and several days was delayed. In spite of these exchanges of Kabisa, which was causing the due date of Newroz and Mehragan’s feasts, it was often occurred when a king or a dominant of their reaching for the power or their coronation, they were naming the same day as Newroz or Mehragan, or they were synchronising their coronation on the first day of spring.
The performing of the Newroz celebration in different periods was different. Sometimes from the first day to the sixth day, it was a public holiday, and sometimes the whole of the first day of the spring month was celebrated. Sometimes from the first day to the sixth day, it was a public holiday, and sometimes the whole 30 days of the first month of the spring were celebrated. During the dominant of some Sasanian kings, from 226 to 651 of Christianity calendar, was common for them to celebrate the whole of the month, which is between 21st of March-20April.
Some historians such as Biruni (Abu Rayhan al-Biruni) have written in the book (Al-Baqiyah and Al-Jahez Dar al-Muhasan Al-Azdad), such as:
● They celebrated during the whole 30 days of the Khakalewa’s month.
● The first 5 days were reserved for the kings to be rewarded and presented during that period.
● The second 5 days were reserved for the aristocrats blue-blooded and the princes.
● The third 5 days were reserved for the king’s servants.
● The fourth 5 days were reserved for their relatives.
● The fifth 5 days were reserved for the militaries.
● The sixth 5 days were reserved for civilian people.
Hormuz, the son of Shapuri I (Sasani), was a king who abolished this division and ordered that Newroz to be held from the 1st of Khakalewa (21 March) till the 30th of Khakalewa (20 April) for everyone equally. This changing was occurred by passing periods, and people were celebrating until 13th of the month, which was known as sinister, tiding home and extricate the infirmity and calamities. On 13th of Khakalewa, all people were going out of their home. They were consigned their infirmities and calamities to the mountains, fields and rivers. In consequence, the Newroz Feast has been formed as nowadays’ since Sasanian’s periods as common till present and has been placed in the nation opinions of this region, and they welcome it.
It is worth mentioning that the Sasanians officially declared Newroz as a national festival in the year 581, or in other consideration 471. However, the problem of exchanging and alternating, the organisation of the feast continued in the same way as in the year of the Kabisa until the eleventh century of Christianity calendar.
There is not much information regarding Newroz in the pre-Sasanian period, but there is much information for the Sasanian period (650-224 AC). The Sasanian’s inscriptions in Kurdistan, as well as other pamphlets and written in Kurdish (Pahlavi), which is the Fayli and were written in those periods, describe the performing of the Newroz celebrations by the kings and the civilians.
Currently, the remembrance and the dignity of the martyrs who ensured the resurrection of a nation that was under the millstone of cultural genocide by the ashes of their bodies. The martyrs became the symbol of the contemporary Kawa, which is our moral and human duty, and by following their path; we will achieve our thousand year’s dreams and fantasies. These martyrdom activities include:
● On 21st March 1982, Mazlum Dogan, one of the founders of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), celebrated the Newroz by firing on his body in the Amed prison army.
● Since that day, Newroz became a political term, and every year in Northern Kurdistan, Newroz Day was celebrated as a day of struggling and uprising.
● Along with all the prohibitions of the Turkish fascist state, Newroz was celebrated in the cities of Czir and Nusaybin after the year of 1980, with the participation of tens of thousands of people and in the public forum.
● In the early year of 1990, on the highlands of the Amed Fortress, a heroic girl named Zakiyeh Alkan, with blazing her body, developed the Newroz fire.
● Zahiye Alkan, in protest of the policies of the occupier and fascist regimes of Turkey and in order to celebrate the Newroz Feast, with firing owns body and her sacrificing, perked up the fire of the uprising of the people and the struggle Newroz.
● The bloodiest Newroz, was the Newroz in 1992 in Czir city. On 20th March 1992, people on Komar square ignited fire. Then they danced around the fife. The Turkish state forces attacked the rally with weapons and eventually hundreds of people injured and arrested.
● In addition, another 13 patriotic civilian were killed by the attack from the forces of the Turkish fascist state.
● In 1994 during the celebration Newroz Feast, the German police attacked Kurdish residents in Germany, and eventually of the beating by police a Kurdish youth by the name Halim Duhner was killed.
● In the same year, during the Kurdish activities in Germany to celebrate the Newroz Feast, two girls by name Runahi and Berivan, blazed herself bodies.
Till nowadays, the Kurdish revolutionaries have not allowed the Newroz flame to be extinguished, and the historical occasion is being dignified with greater enthusiasm year after year. The philosophy of existence, particularly by the Kurds the life would acquire, and the nations will gradually come closer to the freedom pace by pace, which is the truth of the existence of that holy festival.