“From late February, the hills in Southern Kurdistan are blossoming with wild foods,” recalled chef Pary Baban, owner of Nandine, a Kurdish eatery in the South London neighbourhood of Camberwell. “People forage for herbs and fresh ingredients, cook feasts and bring picnics into the mountains. Newroz isn’t just one day; it is the entire season of spring.”
Newroz, also called “Nowruz” in Persian, is the Kurdish and Persian New Year that has more than 3,000-year-old roots in the Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism. Each year, Newroz, which literally translates to “new day”, is celebrated on the spring equinox to welcome a new year, new life and new beginnings.
“Newroz is something special for us,” said Baban. “It’s the only thing the government couldn’t take away from us when Saddam Hussein came to power. Kurdish people never give up; they still go out and celebrate. It’s our identity.”
While the celebrations vary across different regions of Western Asia, in Kurdistan (an autonomous region that spreads over eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, western Iran and parts of northern Syria and Armenia), festivities commence on 20 March. On this night, known as Newroz Eve, people walk through town centres in processions, jump over and dance around fires, and wear brilliantly coloured garments to represent spring.
In Kurdish culture, Newroz Eve echoes a Kurdish myth in which a blacksmith named Kawa was believed to have defeated the evil King Kuhak, thereby liberating the Kurdish people. The symbolism of this myth endures as the liberation of Kurds, one of the world’s largest stateless people.
“We celebrate everything in Newroz, it is not just the New Year,” said Baban. “Everything is coming alive. Music is coming alive. Fighting for your freedom is coming alive. We think about when we will become a free people.”
On 21 March, elaborate feasts are prepared using wild foods foraged from the valleys and mountains now blossoming with fresh herbs and vegetables, like watercress and kengir (similar to a wild artichoke). This tradition of cooking outside and preparing mountain picnics then stretches throughout the entire spring season.