Kurdish festive life involves several calendars and settings: Newroz gatherings, Muslim family celebrations, Yazidi observances and organised arts programmes. These documented examples keep each occasion with its community, place and date.
Newroz: a spring celebration and a local programme
The Kurdish Institute of Paris describes Newroz festivities around 21 March, often extending over several days. Its programme for 2025 scheduled a Paris City Hall gathering on 24 March, with music and traditional dancing, including Semir Yewsip’s group, Aysel Borak and Dler Garmyani. [1] This illustrates an important distinction: a festival’s place in the calendar and the date chosen for a particular gathering can differ. The Akre photograph above records another setting, on 20 March 2018. Neither example supplies one compulsory menu, costume or performance for every Kurdish community.
Eid and the work of family baking
A firsthand recipe published by Laurena at Life Diet Health on 31 July 2020 associates Kurdish kulicha with Eid. Her household version uses a date filling flavoured with cardamom, shaped into spirals and crescents; she explicitly notes variations and also makes the pastries outside the holiday. [2] The account documents one family practice and its adaptation, including a dairy-free version. It helps make the preparation work visible without turning one recipe into a rule for all Muslim Kurdish families or claiming that every Kurdish person celebrates the same religious occasions.
Ser Sal: the Yazidi New Year is a separate occasion
Yezidis International identifies Ser Sal, also called Charshma Sere Nissana in its account, as a Yazidi New Year in April. [3] This is a distinct community observance rather than another name for the March Newroz gathering. Naming it separately preserves that distinction. Its date should be checked against the community’s calendar for the relevant year instead of assigning every spring celebration to 21 March. A broad guide to Kurdish festive life should allow religious communities to explain their own practices and should not assume that one religious observance is shared by all readers.
The December fast and Feast of Êzî
The same community account distinguishes three days of fasting from the Friday feast that follows. It describes a dawn-to-sunset fast, with food and some prayer during the nights. [3] The distinction between fasting days and the feast matters: these are related parts of an observance, not an uninterrupted period without evening meals. The account’s dated example is from 2015 and should not be reused as a current calendar. Together with the April New Year, this demonstrates why different Yazidi occasions need their own names and calendar references.
A theatre festival in Kobani
VOA Kurdish’s photo gallery published on 17 October 2022 documents the second Arîn Mîrkan theatre festival in Kobani. Its captions identify the named festival and location. [4] This is evidence of an organised artistic event, rather than a claim about a fixed ancient ritual or a holiday observed in every town. Keeping the edition, year and venue with a festival record makes it possible to follow cultural work over time. A theatre programme belongs in that record alongside family and religious celebrations, while retaining its different purpose.
A Kurdish culture programme in Warsaw
The Wajda Film Centre’s announcement of 24 March 2026 set out a Kurdish Culture Festival for 17–19 April, organised with the Kurdish Studies Unit and Department of Iranian Studies at the Jagiellonian University. It scheduled documentary screenings, discussions, a photographic presentation and music, including a performance by Pervin Kaplan. [5] The programme frames the event around dialogue and solidarity. It is a record of what organisers announced, not an eyewitness review or an attendance survey. Named organisers, works and dates provide a clearer history of a cultural festival than treating it as an unchanged custom shared everywhere.
Sources and further reading
- Kurdish Institute of Paris, Célébration de Newroz, programme for Paris City Hall, 24 March 2025.
- Laurena, Traditional Kurdish Kulicha for Eid, Life Diet Health, 31 July 2020; firsthand household recipe.
- Yezidis International, Holidays and Festivals; Ser Sal and Roji and Eda Rojiet Ezi sections.
- VOA Kurdish, second Arîn Mîrkan theatre festival in Kobani, photo gallery, 17 October 2022.
- Wajda Film Centre, Kurdish Sun in Spring Warsaw, announcement of 24 March 2026 for the 17–19 April festival.
- Levi Clancy, Newroz procession in Akre, 20 March 2018; Wikimedia Commons, CC0.