Cejna Êzî follows three fasting days and is observed on a Friday reckoned through the Eastern calendar. Community accounts and fieldwork explain its prayers, light symbolism, shared meals and remembrance; the 2026 feast falls on 18 December.

Two fluted conical shrine spires above stone buildings and flat roofs in the wooded mountain valley of Lalish
Lalish photographed by Lamacchiacosta on 10 March 2018. The image provides a view of the Yazidi sacred landscape; it does not show Cejna Êzî celebrations or the December 2026 feast. © Lamacchiacosta · 10 March 2018 · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0. Reduced-resolution copy; no crop or creative changes.

Names and the place of the feast

Cejna Êzî, Îda Êzîd and Eda Rojiet Ezi are spellings used for the Yazidi December feast associated with Êzî. Yezidis International describes it as a feast of the Almighty. [1] Khanna Omarkhali places ʿEyda Êzîd among observances shared across Yazidi communities, while distinguishing regional festivals and local practices. Her research stresses that common traditions can coexist with variation. [2] The feast should therefore be explained through Yazidi accounts and documented practice, without assuming one family’s programme is the only legitimate form or that a devotional name settles every question about historical origins.

The calendar rule and the 2026 dates

Omarkhali gives the first Friday of Eastern December; Aysif explicitly identifies the calendar as Julian. [2] [3] In the present period, 1 December Julian corresponds to 14 December Gregorian, so the feast falls on the first Friday on or after 14 December. For 2026 that is Friday, 18 December, also listed in North Rhine-Westphalia’s official religious-holiday calendar. [4] Counting the three preceding fasting days gives Tuesday 15, Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 December. These are the 2026 dates, rather than a fixed annual Gregorian date or the astronomical solstice itself.

The three-day fast is followed by a feast

Yezidis International says the December fast is expected of the community and describes abstention from food and drink from dawn until sunset. Evenings include meals, prayer and social gathering; Friday is the feast after the three days. [1] Rojiyên Êzî therefore names the fast, while Cejna Êzî names the celebratory occasion that follows it. The distinction also prevents the mistaken impression that people eat nothing for seventy-two uninterrupted hours. Religious guidance on individual participation belongs to the community’s authorities; a general article cannot determine every person’s obligations.

Light, lamps and interpretation

Aysif’s fieldwork account describes the shrine custodian lighting lamps on the eve of the feast. His interlocutors connect the light with the sun and Şeşims, while the feast is also described in relation to Êzî and divine sustenance. [3] This explains why light, hope and the winter season appear in interpretations of the festival. It does not require equating its calendar date with a precise astronomical turning point. Nor should a comparison with another religion’s winter celebration be presented as proof of an unchanged direct historical descent.

Meals and visits in a dated community account

Shafaq News’s report of 19 December 2025 includes interviews about the feast in Duhok. Hussein Huso described visiting relatives with his family and exchanging congratulations. Zahra Jasim described preparations and named sour kubbah alongside bulgur, rice and meat. [5] These concrete accounts show celebration as work undertaken in homes as well as religious observance. They document particular speakers and a particular year, not a compulsory menu for every Yazidi family. A meal or a visit may retain familiar meanings while its setting changes through migration or displacement.

Joy and remembrance can coexist

In its statement of 16 December 2019, Yazda linked the fasting occasion with solidarity for genocide survivors and families of the missing. It called for recovery of abducted people, safe and sustainable return, reconstruction, compensation and justice. [6] This is the organisation’s dated public message, not a current count of missing people or proof that every family experiences the feast in the same way. It adds an important modern context to celebration. The accompanying 2018 photograph is likewise a dated view of Lalish, not evidence that a particular December ceremony was performed when the picture was taken. [7]

Sources and further reading

  1. Yezidis International, Holidays and Festivals, section Roji and Eda Rojiet Ezi; community account of fasting, evening meals and the Friday feast.
  2. Khanna Omarkhali, The Yezidi Religious Textual Tradition (2017), introduction, especially pp. 16–17 and 28–29; public introductory extract, calendar and regional variation.
  3. Rezan Shivan Aysif, The Role of Nature in Yezidism: Poetic Texts and Living Tradition (2021), pp. 170–173; fasting, calendar and lamp-lighting interviews. Existing local research copy consulted.
  4. North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of School and Education, Religious holidays from school year 2025/2026, table 7: Îda Êzîd, 18 December 2026.
  5. Shafaq News, Between ritual and remembrance: Yazidis mark Ezi Feast, 19 December 2025; interviews with Hussein Huso and Zahra Jasim.
  6. Yazda, A statement from Yazda on the occasion of the Yazidi fasting days, 16 December 2019; solidarity, return and justice.
  7. Lamacchiacosta, Lalish panorama, 10 March 2018; Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.