Yazidis celebrate their holy day “Çarşema Sor’ as the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria declare 14th April an official holiday for the celebrations in NE Syria.
Based mainly in Iraq, Syria and Turkey, the Yezidi people celebrate Çarşema Sor, also known as Red Wednesday, as their new year on the first Wednesday after 13 April every year.
Symbolizing the revival of spring Çarşema Sor marks the day when the universe was created from a ‘cosmic egg’ by God in Yazidi belief.
Yazidis have been celebrating this day as the festival of existence for over 2,500 years as Çarşema Sor denotes the creation of universe and the day on which Melek Taus (the Peacock Angel), the most important of 7 angels of the Yezidis who represent the true creator of the universe, came to earth.
The Yazidi communities living in Sinjar region of Iraq welcome this year’s Çarşema Sor with resistance against imminent threats of attack and occupation.
AANES declares Çarşema Sor as an ‘official holiday’
After a 9 October 2020 Erbil-Baghdad agreement between the federal government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) agreed upon ejecting the local Yazidi security forces from Sinjar and replacing them with a deployment of Iraqi military forces, Yazidis living in Sinjar launched their resistance.
Whilst the resistance of the Yazidi people continues to its 130th day as Çarşema Sor arrives, AANES issued a news statement on Tuesday and declared that Çarşema Sor will be celebrated as an “official holiday” in North and East Syria territories administered by the AANES.
‘We wish Çarşema Sor brings peace’
The Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM), a progressive umbrella organisation in northern Syria founded on 16 January 2011 has congratulated the Çarşema Sor, while also wishing for massacres targeting the Yazidi people to be stopped.
“The festival which has a great moral value for the Yazidi Kurds also has a great national value. Çarşema Sor is built on justice, equality, peace, co-existence and morality. We wish this festival brings peace and fellowship of the peoples and we wish Sinjar Autonomous Administration be recognised as part of the Federal Iraqi Government,” said TEV-DEM in a statement on Tuesday 14 April.
