Cejna Cemaiye: The Yazidi Feast of the Assembly
- Dala Sarkis
- 1 hour ago
- 11 min read
Introduction
The Cejna Cemaiye, the Feast of the Assembly, is the greatest and most sacred festival of the Yazidi year, a seven-day gathering and pilgrimage to the holy valley of Lalish held each autumn in honour of the revered saint Sheikh Adi. For seven days the whole Yazidi community comes together at its holiest place, in a festival of devotion, ritual, unity and joy that lies at the very heart of the religious life of the Yazidi faith.
Every Yazidi hopes to make at least one pilgrimage to Lalish in their lifetime, and the Feast of the Assembly is the time above all others when the faithful gather there. During these days the sacred valley fills with pilgrims from across the Yazidi world, the great rituals of the faith are performed, and the community, so often scattered and so often persecuted, is renewed in its unity and its devotion before God and the Seven Holy Beings.
To understand the Cejna Cemaiye is to understand something essential about the Yazidi faith: its deep attachment to the holy valley of Lalish, its rich tradition of sacred ritual, and its profound sense of community. In the gathering of the whole people at their holiest place, in the ancient rites performed there, and in the joy and solemnity of the seven days, the festival expresses the living heart of one of the most ancient faiths of the Kurdish world.
Contents
What Is the Cejna Cemaiye?
The Cejna Cemaiye, whose name means the Feast of the Assembly or the Feast of the Gathering, and which is also called the Cejna Sheikh Adi, is the greatest annual festival of the Yazidis. It is a seven-day autumn festival, celebrated in the Yazidi tradition over the days corresponding to early or mid October, centred on a pilgrimage to the holy valley of Lalish and the tomb of Sheikh Adi. During the feast the whole community gathers, the great rituals of the faith are performed, and Yazidis from across the world come together in devotion, in the renewal of their unity, and in joyful celebration. It is the most important observance of the Yazidi religious year.
The Feast in Honour of Sheikh Adi
The Feast of the Assembly is held in honour of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir, the great twelfth-century saint who is the most revered holy figure of the Yazidi faith and whose tomb at Lalish is its holiest shrine. The festival centres on the veneration of Sheikh Adi and on the sacred valley that holds his tomb, drawing the faithful to the spiritual heart of their religion to honour the saint around whom the classical form of the faith took shape.
In gathering at Lalish in honour of Sheikh Adi, the Yazidis reaffirm their deepest religious bonds: to the saint, to the holy valley, and to the sacred history of their faith. The festival is thus far more than a celebration; it is an act of collective devotion at the very source of the Yazidi religious tradition, a return of the whole community to its holiest place and its most revered figure. The timing in autumn connects the feast to the rhythms of the year and the seasons, and many of its rituals are bound up with the sacred mythology and cosmology of the faith, so that the festival gathers up the whole religious world of the Yazidis into seven days of devotion at Lalish.
Key Takeaways
The Cejna Cemaiye is the greatest festival of the Yazidi year.
It is a seven-day autumn pilgrimage to the holy valley of Lalish.
It is held in honour of the revered saint Sheikh Adi.
The whole community gathers, led by the Mir and the Baba Sheikh.
Its rituals include baptism, the Sema dance, and a sacrifice.
It is above all a time of unity, devotion and renewal.
Quick Facts
Name: Cejna Cemaiye (Feast of the Assembly / Gathering)
Also called: Cejna Sheikh Adi; the Feast of Jamaiya
Type: The greatest Yazidi religious festival
Duration: Seven days, in autumn (early-to-mid October)
Place: The holy valley of Lalish, northern Iraq
In honour of: Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir
Led by: The Mir, the Baba Sheikh, and the spiritual council
Key rites: Pilgrimage, baptism, the Sema dance, sacrifice
Character: Devotional, communal, and joyful
Meaning: Unity, devotion, and the renewal of the community
The Pilgrimage to Lalish
At the heart of the Feast of the Assembly is the pilgrimage to Lalish, the holiest place of the Yazidi faith. Every Yazidi hopes to make at least one pilgrimage to Lalish in their lifetime, and the Feast of the Assembly is the time above all when the faithful gather there, those living in the region striving to attend each year. During the seven days the sacred valley fills with pilgrims from across the Yazidi world, come to perform the rites of the pilgrimage and to be present at the great festival.
The pilgrimage is marked by sacred thresholds and observances. The valley of Lalish is so holy that pilgrims remove their shoes and walk barefoot upon its sacred ground. In the tradition, pilgrims cross a holy bridge, understood as the symbolic passage from the ordinary world into the sacred, and they visit the holy springs and shrines of the valley. To arrive at Lalish for the Feast of the Assembly is to enter the most sacred space of the faith at its most sacred time, and the journey and the arrival are themselves acts of deep devotion, the beginning of the seven days of ritual and gathering at the spiritual heart of the Yazidi world.
The Sacred Rituals
The Feast of the Assembly is among the richest of all Yazidi observances in its rituals, many of which are connected with the sacred mythology and cosmology of the faith. Over the seven days a whole sequence of rites is performed at Lalish, each with its own meaning and its own place in the festival. In the first days, pilgrims undergo the rite known as mor kirin, a sacred washing or baptism performed in the water of the holy spring of the Kaniya Spi, the White Spring, and they perform the sela kirin, the holy greeting, at the spring called Zimzim.
Other rites of the festival include the lighting of sacred lamps and candles, the recital of the holy hymns, the qewls, by the Qewwals and other religious figures, and a range of ceremonies bound up with the sacred history of the faith. Each evening, in the tradition, a great number of lamps are lit throughout the valley, filling Lalish with light. The washing at the sacred springs, the lighting of the lamps, the chanting of the hymns, and the many other rites together make the Feast of the Assembly a profound immersion in the ritual life of the faith, a sustained act of devotion performed by the whole community at its holiest place.
The Sema and the Sacrifice
Among the most striking and sacred of the festival's rituals is the Sema, a solemn religious dance or procession performed at Lalish during the feast. In the Sema, men robed in white move in a stately circular procession, in the tradition around a sacred torch or flame, to the music of the sacred instruments of the faith, the daf, the frame drum, and the shibab, the flute, played by the Qewwals who accompany the rite with holy chants and hymns. The Sema is one of the most sacred and beautiful of the Yazidi ceremonies, a moving expression of devotion in movement, music and light.
Toward the close of the festival, in the tradition, a sacrifice is offered, a sacred animal whose meat is shared among the community as consecrated food, a rite of offering and of communal sharing that binds the people together. The sacrifice and the shared meal, like the Sema and the other rituals, express the deep themes of the festival: devotion to God and the Holy Beings, the sacredness of the valley and its traditions, and the unity of the community gathered together. In these rituals, performed across the seven days, the Feast of the Assembly reaches its fullest expression as an act of collective worship and communion at the heart of the Yazidi faith.
A Time of Unity
Beyond its rituals, the Feast of the Assembly is, as its very name proclaims, a time of gathering and of unity for the whole Yazidi people. During the seven days the entire community comes together at Lalish: the religious leaders, the Mir and the Baba Sheikh and the members of the spiritual council, the tribal chiefs and dignitaries, and thousands of ordinary pilgrims from across the Yazidi world, all present together in one place at one sacred time.
This gathering is of the greatest importance for a community so often scattered and so often persecuted. The festival is a time of profound social cohesion, when bonds are renewed, relationships affirmed, and the unity of the people made visible and real. Alongside the solemn rituals, the feast is also a time of great joy and celebration, with communal meals, music, dancing, markets and games, and an occasion for the young to meet and for families to come together. In this union of the sacred and the joyful, of solemn devotion and communal celebration, the Feast of the Assembly renews not only the faith of the Yazidis but their very identity and unity as a people.
Symbolism and Meaning
The Cejna Cemaiye embodies the deepest values of the Yazidi faith: devotion to God and the Holy Beings, reverence for the saint Sheikh Adi and the holy valley of Lalish, and the unity and continuity of the community. In gathering the whole people at their holiest place to perform the ancient rites of their faith, the festival expresses the living bond between the Yazidis and their religious tradition, renewed afresh each autumn in the sacred valley.
Above all, the festival symbolises the endurance and the unity of the Yazidi people. For a community that has faced terrible persecution across the centuries, including in our own time, the annual gathering at Lalish for the Feast of the Assembly is a powerful affirmation of survival, of identity, and of faith. To come together at the holiest place, to perform the rites handed down from the ancestors, and to celebrate as one people, is to declare that the Yazidis and their ancient religion endure. In the seven days of the Cejna Cemaiye, the Yazidi faith renews itself, and the community reaffirms its bond to its God, its saint, its holy valley, and to one another.
The Feast and the Kurds
The Feast of the Assembly is a treasured part of the heritage of the Kurdish world, for the Yazidis are among the most ancient communities of that world, and their great festival is one of the most remarkable religious observances of the region. Celebrated at Lalish in the Kurdish lands, the feast is part of the rich and varied spiritual heritage that the Kurds have given to the world, alongside the other ancient faiths and traditions of the region.
For the Yazidis, the festival is bound up with their identity as a distinct people with their own ancient religion, an identity that is itself part of the wider tapestry of the Kurdish world. The gathering at Lalish each autumn, the performance of the ancient rites, and the renewal of the community's unity are expressions of a heritage of great depth and antiquity, preserved through centuries of hardship. To honour the Feast of the Assembly is to honour the resilience and the spiritual richness of the Yazidis, and to recognise their great festival as one of the living treasures of the Kurdish world and of the religious heritage of humanity.
Debates and Misconceptions
Is the Feast of the Assembly the same as the Yazidi New Year? No; they are two distinct festivals. The Yazidi New Year, Carsema Sor, the Red Wednesday, is celebrated in the spring and marks the day the world was adorned with life. The Feast of the Assembly, the Cejna Cemaiye, is celebrated in the autumn and is the great seven-day pilgrimage to Lalish in honour of Sheikh Adi. Both are important festivals of the Yazidi year, but they fall at different seasons and have different meanings, the one a spring new-year festival, the other the autumn feast of gathering and pilgrimage.
Why does the festival fall on dates that seem to vary? The Yazidi religious calendar follows the older Eastern, or Julian, reckoning rather than the modern Gregorian calendar, which is some thirteen days behind it. As a result, the dates of the Feast of the Assembly, given in the Yazidi tradition as falling in late September to early October by the old calendar, correspond to early-to-mid October in the modern calendar. This difference of calendars explains why the festival's dates may be given slightly differently in different sources, though it is always the same autumn festival.
Is the Feast of the Assembly only a solemn religious occasion? It is both deeply sacred and genuinely joyful. The festival is, on one hand, the most solemn devotional occasion of the Yazidi year, with its pilgrimage, its baptism, its Sema and its sacrifice. But it is also a time of great communal joy, with feasting, music, dancing, markets and games, and an occasion for families and friends to gather and for the young to meet. This union of the sacred and the joyful is characteristic of the festival and of the Yazidi religious spirit, in which devotion to Tawuse Melek and the Holy Beings and the joy of communal life are woven together.
Related Topics
Lalish: the holy valley where the Feast of the Assembly is held
Sheikh Adi: the revered saint in whose honour the feast is held
Yazidism: the ancient faith whose greatest festival this is
Carsema Sor: the Yazidi New Year, the spring festival
The Qewwals: the sacred musicians who perform at the feast
The Mir: the prince of the Yazidis, present at the gathering
The Baba Sheikh: the spiritual head, who leads the feast
Tawuse Melek: the Peacock Angel, chief of the Holy Beings honoured at the feast
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Cejna Cemaiye?
The Cejna Cemaiye, the Feast of the Assembly, is the greatest festival of the Yazidi year, a seven-day autumn pilgrimage to the holy valley of Lalish in honour of the saint Sheikh Adi. During the feast the whole Yazidi community gathers at its holiest place to perform the great rituals of the faith, to renew its unity, and to celebrate. It is the most important and most sacred observance of the Yazidi religious calendar.
When is the Feast of the Assembly held?
The Feast of the Assembly is an autumn festival, lasting seven days. In the Yazidi tradition its dates are reckoned by the older Eastern calendar, falling in late September to early October by that reckoning, which corresponds to early-to-mid October in the modern Gregorian calendar. This is why the dates may be given slightly differently in different sources, though it is always the same seven-day autumn festival at Lalish.
Where does the festival take place?
The Feast of the Assembly is held at Lalish, the holy valley in the mountains of northern Iraq that is the holiest place of the Yazidi faith, the site of the tomb of Sheikh Adi. Yazidis from across the world travel to Lalish for the festival, and the sacred valley fills with pilgrims during the seven days. Every Yazidi hopes to make at least one pilgrimage to Lalish in their lifetime.
What rituals are performed during the feast?
The festival includes a rich sequence of rituals over its seven days: the pilgrimage to Lalish, the sacred washing or baptism known as mor kirin at the holy spring, the holy greeting at the spring of Zimzim, the lighting of many sacred lamps each evening, the recital of the holy hymns by the Qewwals, the solemn Sema dance performed by men in white to the daf and shibab, and a sacrifice toward the close of the feast whose meat is shared as sacred food.
How is the Feast of the Assembly different from the Yazidi New Year?
They are two distinct festivals. The Yazidi New Year, Carsema Sor or Red Wednesday, is a spring festival marking the adorning of the world with life. The Feast of the Assembly, the Cejna Cemaiye, is the autumn festival, the great seven-day pilgrimage to Lalish in honour of Sheikh Adi. Both are important, but they fall in different seasons and carry different meanings within the Yazidi religious year.
Why is the festival so important to the Yazidis?
The Feast of the Assembly is the time when the whole Yazidi community gathers at its holiest place to renew its faith and its unity. For a people so often scattered and persecuted, this annual gathering is a powerful affirmation of survival, identity and devotion. It unites the religious leaders, the tribes and thousands of pilgrims in shared worship and celebration, renewing the bonds of the community and its connection to its God, its saint and its sacred valley.
References and Further Reading
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