Yazidi celebrate New Year in Iraq
Ancient religion has been misunderstood in the past, resulting in the persecuted.
For the Yazidi, this is the start of year 6,762, and they have travelled to Lalesh, in northern Iraq, from mountain villages, towns and cities in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Europe to celebrate.
Yazidi believe in the same God as Muslims, Christians, and Jews, but they believe they were the first people God created. Along with Babylonian rituals, and elements of other religions, they worship the sun.
On New Year’s day, the Yazidi faithful, along with Kurdish, Muslim and Christian leaders, pay their respects to the prince of the Yazidi.
Like the Kurds, the Yazidi were pressured to declare themselves Arab under Saddam Hussein, the late Iraqi ruler.
Al Jazeera’s Jane Arraf reports from Lalesh.