Kostum Vestifal Kurdi
Suleiman is traditionally the place for the folk festival on the eve of Nero, the Kurdish New Year. Families take to the streets in their Sunday best and stroll for hours through the main street, Salem Street. Women in colorful Kurdish dresses, men in wide Kurdish costume, children endearing pride in their smaller version of that party clothes.
For years it was just a long stroll through the streets, but the government has responded and it now offers live music and numerous roadside stalls with goodies. Moreover, throughout the central them put down those torches are lit in honor of the New Year. And when night falls, there are fireworks.
This is partly done to prevent the bonfires, which TRADTIONAL across the Kurdish countryside are lit. That will not do; route from Gerbil to Suleiman I saw many young people on New Year’s Eve in the back with old tires. Pouring gasoline on them and stabbing them with them, some polluting fires in bold black smoke poses.
In Suleiman, the main party, the PUK, wood stacked for a bonfire. But for the many thousands of visitors were not Suleiman. That was mainly to see and be seen. These occasions are an opportunity for young people a possible marriage partner outside their own group to find.
And this year it was striking how mixed the audience was in the street. From Suleiman, the environment, the rest of Kurdistan, but also Arabic, from the rest of Iraq, and even Iranian, from across the border in Iranian Kurdistan. Especially the Arab-Kurdish mix is striking. Although many Arab Iraqis have come north to escape the violence, they are not always warmly welcomed. For too many Kurds is the link between Saddam and Arab Iraqis, and between Iraqis and terrorists in the south to determine.
But Sunday that seemed forgotten. There was dancing exuberantly on both Arab and Kurdish music. My Arab employee had, to the delight of the Kurdish staff, in the Kurdish geezer suit. The mass was much Arabic spoken. It is a good beginning of new Kurdish years.
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