Yazidis gather at their holiest temple for seven-day festival

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Yazidis from across Iraq gathered at Lalish Temple in the Kurdistan Region's Shekhan district on Tuesday to mark the start of the seven-day Jamaye Festival of Sheikh Adi, joined by a procession of Shabaks, another ethnoreligious minority, who traveled from northern Iraq to the holy site for the celebrations.

“The Shabak procession traveled from Bashiqa and Bahzani [in Iraq's northern Nineveh province] to Lalish, where it was welcomed by the Yazidi Spiritual Council, religious dignitaries and worshippers,” Sharo Ibrahim, a custodian at Lalish Temple, told Rudaw's Parinaz Abdullah, adding that Tuesday marked “the first day of the Jamaye of Sheikh Adi.”

The Jamaye of Sheikh Adi, Kurmanji Kurdish for “Feast of the Assembly,” is one of the Yazidi community's most important annual festivals and holiest pilgrimages. It is held at Lalish, home to the tomb of Sheikh Adi, a central figure in Yazidi religious tradition.

Worshippers in traditional Yazidi dress took part in communal celebrations, including the Govend, a sequence dance performed throughout the seven days. Families also baptized their newborns at the temple.

The ceremonies were attended by the Baba Sheikh, the Yazidis' highest spiritual leader, and the community's emir, Hazim Tahsin Beg.

For many participants, the festival is an annual family tradition. Madina Ziyad told Rudaw she traveled with her family from Shingal (Sinjar), the Yazidi heartland in northern Iraq. “We come to Lalish at this time every year wearing traditional Yazidi clothing,” she said.

Vina Rafah, another participant, said she hoped young Yazidi women would keep taking part in traditional dress as well. “I want every girl like us who comes here to wear traditional Yazidi clothing and share in the joy. We come to the Jamaye for seven days,” Rafah noted.

Lalish, which is on UNESCO's Tentative List of World Heritage sites, is the spiritual center of the Yazidi faith and the main destination for pilgrims traveling from Iraq and abroad.

The festival comes more than a decade after the Islamic State (ISIS) overran Shingal and other Yazidi areas in 2014, targeting the community's religious and cultural heritage and destroying sacred sites, according to UNESCO.