The Yezidis in Iraq are celebrating New Year. That is what the word "Nissan" means to them

The Yezidis in Iraq are celebrating New Year. That is what the word "Nissan" means to them

Local Since 2017-04-19 at 17:43 (Baghdad time)

Baghdad - Mawazine News
Wednesday, April 19, is the first Yazidi year known as the "Shesh Ras" Eid.
The Yezidis in northern Iraq celebrated Tuesday the New Year and considered this the biggest celebration in three years in the community, which has been exposed since 2014 to the killing and displacement by the organization of a supporter.
The Yazidis celebrated the "Lalish" temple in Sheikhan district in northern Iraq on the eve of the "Suh Rasal", the Yazidi New Year, which begins on the first of April of Yazidi, which falls on Wednesday 19 April this year.
The word "Nissan" for the Yazidis is divided into "ne" ie "new" and "san" ie birth.
* Almost no holiday
Among the participants in the celebration Zwan Masaid, considered that "feeling is not beautiful. Not as it was before we fled because of an evangelist, we hardly have a holiday, but we are forced not to forget our customs and traditions. "
"I hope that those who are still in the hands of an advocate will return, we do not want anything else," she adds.
At the bottom of the mountain road leading to the Lalish temple, the Yazidis take off their shoes and continue walking barefoot as if to approach God.
"Every year we visit Lash, but almost the celebrations were not the same as before, and before they occupy Sinjar and take our brothers and sisters," Akram Basho, a Sinjar resident, points out.
"We are still sad for Sinjar, for our relatives who disappeared and who were kidnapped," said Tahsin Basho, who is happy to celebrate.
The Yezidis are a minority, neither Muslim nor Arab, numbering more than half a million people. Their presence is concentrated mainly near the Syrian border in northern Iraq.
The Yazidis say that their religion dates back thousands of years and originated from the ancient Babylonian religion in Mesopotamia, while others see their religion as a mixture of several ancient religions such as Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism.
The organization is calling for a strong hostility towards this Kurdish-speaking group, and its members are considered "infidels". In 2014, the organization killed a large number of Yazidis in Sinjar in Nineveh province, tens of thousands of them were forced to flee, while thousands of girls and women were taken captive.
* Boil eggs and coloring
And among the hills, the Yezidis gather to pray to God, carrying stones with sticks of fire, lighting 365 sandals for good and safety throughout the year. Among the traditions they do on this day are the eggs boiled and painted, as the Yezidis believe that the egg symbolizes what they call "White Dora," of which the whole world believes.
The stoning of the eggs also symbolizes in the Yezidi belief the formation of land, birth and the resurrection of life. To mark a new year, the Yezidis hang colored egg shells with anemone flowers by the dough on the doors of the houses.
At the bottom of the mountain road leading to the Lalish temple, the Yazidis take off their shoes and continue walking barefoot as if to approach God.
And among the hills, the Yezidis gather to pray to God, carrying stones with sticks of fire, lighting 365 sandals for good and safety throughout the year. Among the traditions they do on this day is the boiling and coloring of eggs. The Yazidis believe that the egg symbolizes what they call the "White Dora", of which the whole world believes.
The Yezidis say that their religion dates back thousands of years, and that it originated from the ancient Babylonian religion in Mesopotamia, while others see their religion as a mixture of several ancient religions such as Zoroastrianism and Manoa.

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