While Kurds in all four parts of Kurdistan and in the diaspora are preparing to take to the streets for the Kurdish New Year festival Newroz on 21 March, the first bonfire was lit in Eastern Kurdistan (Rojhilat).

On 1 March, a Newroz celebration was organized in the village of Cesmîder in Sewlawa district of Sine (Sanandaj). On 3 March, thousands of people lit the Newroz fire in Merîwan.

During the celebration in Merîwan, the national anthem was sung, followed by the slogans 'Jin, Jiyan, Azadî' [Woman, Life, Freedom) and 'Bijî Kurdistan' [Long Live Kurdistan].

Newroz

Kawa the blacksmith from the Newroz legend was the leader of the resistance against the despot Dehaq, who had two young people killed every day to feed their brains to his snakes. The people of his kingdom therefore fled to the mountains. There, Kawa managed to persuade the people to resist Dehaq. The young blacksmith made weapons for himself and his comrades-in-arms. They rebelled together and Kawa slew the tyrant and the snakes with his blacksmith's hammer. He then built a fire on the roof of the palace to announce the end of tyranny and the beginning of a new day. Newroz, the Kurdish New Year and resistance festival on 21 March, is celebrated by the Kurds in their homeland and all around the world every year.