Kurdistan's 2016 bride, blanket of snow

author_image Hisham Arafat
The snowfall that the Iraqi Kurdistan Region witnessed in the last days of 2015 has continued into the New Year with a bright blanket covering the mountains of other parts of Kurdistan in Syria (Rojava) and Turkey.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (K24) – The snowfall that the Iraqi Kurdistan Region  witnessed in the last days of 2015 has continued into the New Year with a bright blanket covering the mountains of other parts of Kurdistan in Syria (Rojava) and Turkey.

A K24 reporter in Erbil said Mergasor, north of Erbil, has gathered more than 80 cm of snow last night, including mountain and plain areas, all since last Wednesday.

“The Kurdish people usually greet snow with celebrations in an atmosphere of joy and delight. It is part of the Kurdish culture that people play collectively and sing poems of snow with a lot of games and contests,” a 47-year-old woman cheerfully told a K24 reporter in Mount Korek on Friday.

Fadel Ibrahim, the general director of the Kurdish Meteorology, told K24, “It has snowed in many parts of the Kurdistan Region since last Wednesday, including Mergasor and Mount Korek north Erbil, Kirkuk city, Sulaymaniyah city, Duhok city and its surroundings.”

In Rojava, a K24 reporter said it has snowed in Kobani and Tal Abyad since the beginning of the New Year on Friday.

“Snow relieves our pains and makes us forget the horrors of war and destruction,” children in Kobani told a K24 reporter who took part in their snow games.

In Turkey (north of Kurdistan), K24 reporters in Diyarbakir and Istanbul said it had snowed heavily in Diyarbakir and Mardin, southern parts of Turkey, and in Istanbul as well. “It has been snowing for a week, and snow usually disrupts transportation, but we have something other than wars and conflicts to talk about in our daily life,” a 35-year-old man told a K24 reporter in Diyarbakir.

Shergo, a Syrian Kurd photographer living in Istanbul, told K24 on Saturday, “Wherever it falls, snow has a joyful impression on our morale as refugees.  Moreover, it reminds us of our Kurdish originality and traditions where couples prefer to get married on snowy days to have a blessed marriage as the Kurdish myths tell.”

The snowfall in the Kurdistan Region is not a rare thing as it falls annually, but one of the reasons that so many Kurdish people love snow is that it falls mostly on the mountains that are culturally and historically considered a close friend of the Kurds as most of them believe they have “No Friends but the Mountains.”

 

Kurdistan's 2016 bride, blanket of snow
Kurdistan's 2016 bride, blanket of snow
Kurdistan's 2016 bride, blanket of snow
Kurdistan's 2016 bride, blanket of snow
Kurdistan's 2016 bride, blanket of snow
Kurdistan's 2016 bride, blanket of snow
Kurdistan's 2016 bride, blanket of snow
Kurdistan's 2016 bride, blanket of snow
Kurdistan's 2016 bride, blanket of snow
Kurdistan's 2016 bride, blanket of snow
Kurdistan's 2016 bride, blanket of snow
Kurdistan's 2016 bride, blanket of snow
Kurdistan's 2016 bride, blanket of snow
Kurdistan's 2016 bride, blanket of snow
Kurdistan's 2016 bride, blanket of snow
Kurdistan's 2016 bride, blanket of snow
Kurdistan's 2016 bride, blanket of snow
Kurdistan's 2016 bride, blanket of snow
Kurdistan's 2016 bride, blanket of snow
Kurdistan's 2016 bride, blanket of snow