It has been a year since my first Nevruz celebration, and I must say I'm feeling a little nostalgic about that weekend trip to Kochkor I wrote about last spring. Here is a quick description of the holiday from today's Turkish Daily News.
March 21 is a celebration of the arrival of spring in many parts of the Middle East and is the official New Year in Iran. It is also celebrated in Central Asian Turkic republics and in Afghanistan. It represents the time in the rotation of the Earth when day and night are exactly equal or, as some call it, the Spring Equinox...
Fire is one of the key components of the New Year’s celebrations that are called Nevruz in Turkish and Newroz in Kurdish... Some 20 countries acknowledge the day, as do a number of communities that are no longer living in their native lands, including the Bahais and the Zoroastrians...
The original words mean “New Day” (Nev-ruz) in Iranian, and it is in that country where the custom of celebrating the Spring Equinox apparently had its start – although there are some who favor a Central Asian origin. The story told is a tale of a tyrannical king and a hero who rallied the people to defeat him, a story with a similar feeling to that of David and Goliath in the Bible. The celebration has also been attributed to the Zoroastrians, who were in Iran long before the Iranians, and to their beliefs.
All the pictures below are from Radikal. Unfortunately the photos aren't listed by city, so there's no way to be sure where each of these was taken.
Photo from Radikal
Celebrations of Nevruz in Turkey can also take on a political meaning. The above article continues...
In Turkey, the holiday was marked for decades with protests as Kurds who followed the Iranian custom of celebrating the Spring Equinox turned it into a protest against what they perceived as oppression. A key element in celebrating the day is the lighting of a large bonfire; since the Turkish government had outlawed the celebration, the bonfire took on greater significance. Leaping over the bonfire was a way in which young Kurds could show off their athletic prowess and courage. Police, on the other hand, would break up what they saw as an illegal activity – actions that sometimes resulted in violence and even death.
A young man jumps through the Nevruz fire.
Photo from Radikal
Three young girls at a Nevruz celebration, two in the Kurdish colors of green, yellow and red
Photo from Radikal
Some celebrating the holiday in Turkey held up photographs of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan
Photo from Radikal
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