'Charshama Sare Sale'
Yazidis celebrate the new year with hope and calls for more government support
SINJAR — The Yazidi community in Sinjar, in western Nineveh governorate, is celebrating the Yazidi New Year, with vibrant public festivities that coincide with the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday this year. The celebrations are marked by the sounds of flutes and drums and traditional dance performances by men and women in colorful attire.
Yazidi New Year, or “Charshama Sare Sale” in Kurdish, falls on the first Wednesday of April each year according to the Gregorian calendar and marks one of the holiest occasions for Yazidis.
Friday’s celebration comes as the community recovers from years of persecution and displacement by ISIS, beginning in 2014. Over 5,000 Yazidis lost their lives at the hands of the militant group, with approximately 360,000 displaced within Iraq, and over 100,000 fleeing the country altogether.
Many Yazidis have now returned to their ancestral lands in northern Iraq, despite the visible scars of destruction that remain a part of their daily lives. According to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM), ISIS decimated up to 80% of public infrastructure and 70% of civilian homes in Sinjar and its environs.
Throughout the New Year festivities, adherents visit natural landscapes and religious shrines, where community members exchange gifts of colored eggs. Representing Earth’s spherical shape, eggs are traditionally boiled to symbolize the planet’s solidity. The act of peeling the boiled eggs is then seen as an allegory for the melting of ice, heralding the onset of spring.
The colors also symbolize the Earth’s beauty at the creation of the universe, according to Yazidi belief.
“Today, we celebrate this blessed festival and pray for everlasting love, peace, and security in our homeland,” expressed Issa Ali, a Yazidi activist.
Each Yazidi household honors the New Year, also known as the Feast of the Poor, by sacrificing a lamb, part of which is cooked and enjoyed within the family, while the remainder is distributed among the poor.
As the community celebrates another year, though, there are widespread calls for more government support and reconstruction efforts to enable a complete return to Sinjar. “The government should assist and support us, and rebuild the region so everyone can return to their homes,” Ali added.
Almas Sarhan, a young Yazidi woman, told 964media, “People are extremely happy to celebrate the Yazidi New Year. It proves our attachment to the land of our ancestors. Sinjar is safe, and rumors to the contrary are false. This area needs the efforts of its people to return life to its best state.”
However, despite Yazidis beginning to trickle back to their ancestral lands post-ISIS, the recovery process is stymied by the volatile situation in Sinjar, compounded by local and regional disputes over the area’s fate.
These disputes raise concerns among residents about potential conflicts, hindering the full return of the Yazidi population and the complete reconstruction of their devastated communities.
Yazidi man reunited with his family after years in ISIS captivity
