Charshama Sor

During the celebrations of Charshama Sor or Çarşema Sor, the Yazidis flock to the Laleş temple, which houses the tomb of Sheikh Adi, who died in 1162, and light 365 candles. Charshama Sor is intended to commemorate the creation of the universe and to celebrate nature and fertility. The Yazidis, having lost most of their religious heritage through continual invasions, derive their knowledge from religious traditions.

Charshama Sor

Charshama Sor

It is written in the speech of Genesis:  

“Our Lord began to create the Universe on Friday. On Saturday, he began to elaborate the robe (…). He finished his work on Wednesday”  

The first Wednesday in April in the Eastern calendar is a public holiday for Yazidi Kurds and is called "Red Wednesday" or New Year's Day. Yazidi. The festival coincides with the spring season of the spread and growth of flowers of all colors, shapes and the abundance of red roses and anemones in nature, which grow in spring, according to researchers and Yazidi scholars.  

The mythology Yazidi say that the universe was dark and foggy and the earth was covered with a layer of ice. God sent "King Ta'wes" on Wednesday to the earth to live there, in the form of a bird, in the region of Sheikhan, in the south of Kurdistan covered with a layer of ice. He landed on Hiro's Tree of Divine Pride.

Then the power of the Creator melted the layer of ice by the heat of the sun, and the face of the earth on truth and decorated the earth with a bouquet of flowers and roses in red, yellow and green. Therefore, this day was considered the beginning of spring and they called it the Yezidi New Year.  

According to religious scholars, until 612 BC. BC, Kurds celebrated this day as a religious holiday only, but after the Kurdish people who broke free from the most powerful empires of that time and created the Kurdish Mediya Empire, this day became a national and religious holiday at the same time, so that the Sheikh "Adi bin Musafir al-Hakkari" who is the religious reference of the Yezidis and his tomb are in Lalech,  

On this day, a special ritual takes place, where Yazidis get up early, wear their best clothes and sacrifice each according to their economic status: “sheep, calves and others” and decorate the entrances to their houses with flowers.  

While the women prepare the food, the young men and women paint twelve hard-boiled eggs, three eggs in the color of the seasons, and put them in a dish in the center of the house. The egg symbolizes the spherical earth. The Yazidis knew about the spherical earth before they saw the world. Eggs are a sign of the frozen earth, the broken eggshell symbolizes the melting of the ice layer from the earth's surface, and the coloring of the egg is a sign of the colors of roses and flowers that have blossomed with the arrival of King Ta'wes, spring is the beginning of life.  

Yazidis visit the graves of their dead on the eve of Red Wednesday. The women take with them eggs, sweets and fruits, which are distributed among themselves and to the poor.  

There is an old tradition of this holiday, including refraining from digging the ground and plowing during the month of April, as plantations, flowers, and most plants bloom this month. Weddings in April are also prohibited and it is believed that bringing a bride brings misfortune to the house, as it is believed that the month of April is the bride of the year and that one should not compete with her.  

When Yazidis play the game of haggan and break the eggs, they recreate the story of creation where the pearl burst and the material world (sun, earth, stars) came into being.

Wild red flowers are hung over the doors of homes and shrines for the same reason a wreath would be used at Christmas.