Hewler Şahin/JINHA

SHENGAL - The people on Shengal Mountains have begun their preparations for the Festival of Çarşema Sor (Red Wednesday) with great enthusiasm. The Preparatory Committee member Nurcan Şengal said, "I call on all Kurdish people for solidarity with our Êzidî people to celebrate their festival freely."

The Êzidî New Year, known as Sere Sal, meaning "Head of the Year", is celebrated on a particular Wednesday of April, known as Çarşema Sor (Red Wednesday). Festivals carry the cultures that form the identity of the community. So Êzidî people celebrate the festival of Çarşema Sor every year despite the pressure and difficulties. Êzidîs have suffered to continue this festival. Êzidîs can celebrate the festival Çarşema Sor by resisting against decrees, pressure and slaughter. Nurcan Şengal plays a part in the Preparatory Committee of such important day. Nurcan said, "I wish a happy Çarşema Sor to the PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, all Êzidî people, who live in four parts of Kurdistan, all fighters and all people in the world."

Nurcan told how they celebrate the festival. "New Year day begins with a banquet to honor the dead. At dawn, all Êzidîs go to the nearby cemeteries with pots of food. The graves quickly become transformed into tables for many plates of food, colored eggs, and red flowers and framed photos of the deceased. While going from tombstone to tombstone the women eulogize each of the deceased with mournful singing and wailing. All people usually wear white clothes during the festival.

"This day commemorates the Wednesday that Tawsi Melek first came to Earth millions of years ago in order to calm the planet's quaking and spread his peacock colors throughout the world. Part of the New Year celebration is the coloring of eggs, which collectively represent Tawsi Melek's rainbow colors that Tawsi Melek blessed the world with and displays in his form of the Peacock Angel. The eggs are principally colored red, blue, green and yellow. Women also place blood-red flowers and shells of the colored eggs above the doors of the Yezidis so that Tawsi Melek can recognize their abodes.

"I call on all Kurdish people for solidarity with our Êzidî people to celebrate their festival freely."

(mg/gd)