The Story of Nawroz... -كردستان kurdistan - akre nowruz

[Anthea]

The Story of Nawroz... -كردستان kurdistan - akre nowruz

Newroz means Kurdish New year

Fire flames beautifully illuminating evening sky of Akre in Newroz 1996. For the first time Kurds celebrating their national festival of Newroz in Kurdistan after the Gulf War which had defeated Saddam's army and lost Iraq's authority in Kurdistan.

Only initially during the four years of autonomy of 1970-1974, Kurds celebrated their Newroz under watchful eyes of Iraqi existence. After collapsing the Kurdish revolt of 1975, Saddam eliminated Newroz as a National Holiday and Kurds lost that celebration till they got free from Iraqi government's control after the Gulf War.

After UN created safe-haven and no-fly zone for Kurdistan, for the first time in their life, Kurds freely practiced their national new year celebration without existing Iraqi or any occupier's authorities

Once upon a time in a land far far away there was a king. This King who went by the name of Zuhak-the Dragon-had an unfortunate birth defect, 2 gigantic snakes growing from each shoulder because of a curse placed on Zuhak by the Gods for his evil ways. These snakes had to be fed with the brains of 2 children everday of the year.

Now the King's doctor who was in charge of procuring the snakes meal could'nt bring himself to kill children everyday so he would smuggle one of the children to a land beyond the mountains and feed the Basilisk's a mix of human and sheeps brains (yummy!!).

One of the subjects of this ancient despot was Kawa a poor blacksmith who had already had many of his children sacrificed in this way. When he was told that his last remaining child, his beloved daughter was to be the next to be sacrificed, Kawa marched to the land of the smuggled children raised an army and marched on the palace of Zuhak. Where he killed the tyrant with a single blow of his mighty hammer.

The sacrificial children who had survived 'the Dragon' then set out to the mountains and lit fires to tell the people of the world that the Evil King was gone and that freedom and peace would now reign in the world (sounds familiar).

Nowadays we Kurds, the desecndents of the mountain children light mighty bonfires and celebrate the downfall of Zuhak every year at the vernal equinox, 21st of March which is now our New Years-Newroz.

Anthea: I could not do the story just myself so PLEASE go to the following site to view this excellently written and illustrated article:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kurdistan4 ... otostream/