Nevruz Bayrami

There’s a holiday in Turkey that occupies a special place. The Turks began to celebrate it long before their country was formed. This is Nevruz Bayrami holiday...

Gentile holiday in the country of Islam

Among Turkish holidays there is a special one that they celebrated throughout the country a few thousand years ago. It was the time when no Turkey or Ottoman Empire or even Byzantine Empire existed. Asia Minor was inhabited by tribes of the Hittites and Celts, who reached Egypt and Western Europe with their military campaigns. Along with them Aryan tribes came to these lands, who are now known as the Persians. Their state religion was Zoroastrianism. Followers of the Prophet Zarathustra worshiped the sacred flame and believed in one God. It was then when they started to celebrate Nevruz on the territory of Turkey.

History

This is a very ancient celebration, its "invention" scientists tend to impute to agricultural tribes. Some indeed believe that Nevruz was firstly celebrated by the cattle-breeders. But it is not very important for us. The main thing that we know - Nevruz was celebrated by the ancient Persians in honor of the beginning of spring, agricultural work and the opening of new pastures. When the Persians began to practice Zoroastrianism, this holiday was connected with the sun, which Zoroastrians identified with a single deity.

Islamic Period

With the advent of Muslims to the lands of Turkey and Iran the aggressively fight with Zoroastrianism started. In this case, as usual, Islam absorbed many elements of the persecuted religion. This is how Nevruz transformed into Muslim traditions. This holiday has lost its religious meaning and became simply an agrarian rite. Today Muslim clerics in Turkey have nothing against Nevruz. It is celebrated as an official holiday.

Kurdish motif

Turkey is inhabited by 15 million Kurds. For them, Nevruz is not just the first day of field work. They considered themselves the descendants of the Media kingdom and belonged to Zoroastrian religion (although in recent years there are many Muslims among them). For them Nevruz is a celebration of national identity. For some time the Government of Turkey, which is very concerned about attempts of national minorities to self-determination, struggled with Nevruz in its "Kurdish" form. But since 1966 they stopped to do this. Nevruz was declared a Turkish holiday.

How they celebrate

Typically they make solemn feasts and agricultural rites in the countryside. They believe that what you see during Nevruz first of all, you’ll see all year round. So the Turks are trying that day to look at rich meals, sweets, money or wine.