Yazidi New Year Festival

Yazidis celebrate their New Year ( Lalisch , Northern Iraq, 2018)

The Yezidi New Year ( Kurmanji Sersal) is the New Year of Yazidis and will Çarşema Sor ( Red Wednesday () or Çarşema Serê Nîsanê in April First Wednesday called). It is celebrated every year on the first Wednesday in April (according to the Yazidi calendar). The religious New Year, Sersal, does not fall on March 21st for the Yazidis like the Kurdish Newroz festival.

Also known as Çarşema Serê Nîsanê ( First Wednesday in April ), the Yezidi New Year festival is very similar to the Akitu festival of the Sumerians and Babylonians , which was celebrated in the month of “ Nisannu ”, which is the first month of the year according to the Babylonian and Yezidi calendar is.

This day is often referred to as "Sersal", which means "New Year" in German.

According to the legend, on this day God gave the angel Melek Taus the task of creating the earth and making it habitable for all living beings.

On this day, the Yazidis set up their house entrances with splendid floral decorations and colored or painted chicken eggs. In memory of the creation of the earth, Yazidi dignitaries, usually Pêşîmanê, bracelets, the so-called " Bazimbar ", are woven and distributed to the Yazidis . The dignitary brings water from the sacred "Kanîya Sipî" (white spring) with the bazimbar.

Many families meet outdoors on a meadow to picnic and dance together.

The purpose of the festival is to ask the heavenly messenger for help, protection and a productive harvest.

Since the Yazidi calendar follows the Gregorian calendar valid in Germany by 13 days, the New Year is celebrated on the first Wednesday of April, which occurs on or after April 14 in the Gregorian calendar.

April is a holy month for the Yazidis and is also called “Bûka Salê” (Bride of the Year) and the Yazidis are not allowed to marry during this month. According to Yazidi mythology, the angels get married this month. This custom has similarities with the mythology of the ancient Babylonians, who celebrated the wedding of the gods in the month of "Nisannu".

The "Çira" is called the Yazidis' sacred light and is lit every Wednesday and Friday evening in the Lalisch valley. Poppies , also known as "Kulîlkê Nîsanê" (Flowers of April) by the Yazidis, are also a symbol of the Yazidis New Year. The Yazidis decorate their house entrances with the flowers for the New Year celebrations by attaching a few petals of the poppy flowers over their front door.

Web links

http://ciwanen-ezidi.de/pdf/rotemittwoch.pdf

literature

Artur Rodziewicz: And the Pearl Became an Egg: The Yezidi Red Wednesday and Its Cosmogonic Background . In: Iran and the Caucasus. Volume 20, No. 3–4, 2016, pp. 347–367 ( ISSN 1573-384X , doi: 10.1163 / 1573384X-20160306 )

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Hayrî Demir: Çarşema Sor - The Ezidi New Year. March 27, 2011, p. 1 , accessed September 3, 2018 .
↑ teaching. Retrieved on February 26, 2019 (German).
↑ Hun bi xer hatin - Denwan.de. Retrieved February 26, 2019 .
↑ Nadia Bousrouf, Ralf Frassek: Between Frankfurt, Marrakech and Kabul . Books on Demand, 2016, ISBN 978-3-7412-5701-8 ( google.de [accessed February 26, 2019]).
↑ Célia Mercier: They treated us like animals: I was enslaved and mistreated by IS - and still survived . MVG Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-96121-055-8 ( google.de [accessed on July 6, 2018]).
↑ Birgul Acikyildiz: The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion . IBTauris, 2014, ISBN 978-1-78453-216-1 ( google.de [accessed on July 6, 2018]).

[:0-1] Hayrî Demir: Çarşema Sor - The Ezidi New Year. March 27, 2011, p. 1 , accessed September 3, 2018 .

[2] teaching. Retrieved on February 26, 2019 (German).

[3] Hun bi xer hatin - Denwan.de. Retrieved February 26, 2019 .

[4] Nadia Bousrouf, Ralf Frassek: Between Frankfurt, Marrakech and Kabul . Books on Demand, 2016, ISBN 978-3-7412-5701-8 ( google.de [accessed February 26, 2019]).

[5] Célia Mercier: They treated us like animals: I was enslaved and mistreated by IS - and still survived . MVG Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-96121-055-8 ( google.de [accessed on July 6, 2018]).

[6] Birgul Acikyildiz: The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion . IBTauris, 2014, ISBN 978-1-78453-216-1 ( google.de [accessed on July 6, 2018]).