Newroz gets most of the attention, but the Kurdish cultural calendar extends well beyond March 21st. The agricultural rhythms of the Kurdish homeland generated a cycle of seasonal observances that marked the turning of the year long before they acquired their current religious and cultural associations.

Khidr Elias, observed in late January or early February, is a celebration associated with rain, fertility, and the hope that the cold season will end. Families prepare a specific sweet dish and observe particular customs designed to bring blessing to the household for the coming year. Sere Sale, meaning beginning of the year in some Kurdish dialects, is observed at the winter solstice in some communities as a counterpart to Newroz’s spring celebration.

Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan, is celebrated with a week of visiting and feasting that has its own Kurdish character — particular sweets, specific greetings, and the tradition of children receiving gifts of new clothing. Each of these occasions is an opportunity to gather, to speak Kurdish, to cook traditional food, and to reinforce the seasonal fabric of cultural identity that makes a community something more than a group of people who happen to live near each other.