I was on Newroz 2009 in Solnahallen (Newroz is a kurdish new year)
Newroz (Kurdish: نهورۆز) refers to the celebration of the traditional Iranian new year holiday of Newroz in Kurdish society. Newroz is celebrated throughout the countries of the Middle East and Central Asia such as in Iran, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan and Turkey. Newroz is also celebrated by some communities in Pakistan. In Kurdish legend, the holiday celebrates the deliverance of the Kurds from a tyrant, and it is seen as another way of demonstrating support for the Kurdish cause.The celebration is commonly transliterated Newroz by the Kurds and coincides with the spring equinox which falls mainly on 21st March and the festival is held usually between the 18th and 24th of March. The festival currently has an important place in the terms of Kurdish identity for the majority of Kurds, mostly in Turkey and Syria. Though celebrations vary, people generally gather together to welcome the coming of spring; people wear coloured clothes and flags of green, yellow and red, the colours of the Kurdish people are waved.
The famous Kurdish writer and poet Piramerd (1867-1950) writes in his 1948 poem Newroz:
- The New Year’s day is today. Newroz is back.
- An ancient Kurdish festival, with joy and verdure.
- For many years, the flower of our hopes was downtrodden
- The fresh rose of spring was the blood of the youth
- It was that red colour on the high horizon of Kurd
- Which was carrying the happy tidings of dawn to remote and near nations
- It was Newroz which imbued the hearts with such a fire
- That made the youth receive death with devoted love
- Hooray! The sun is shining from the high mountains of homeland
- It is the blood of our martyrs which the horizon reflects
- It has never happened in the history of any nation
- To have the breasts of girls as shields against bullets
- Nay. It is not worth crying and mourning for the martyrs of homeland
- They die not. They live on in the heart of the nation.
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