The Êzîdî Calendar and Time-Reckoning

This article deals with the mechanics of the Êzîdî calendar: the Julian reckoning system, the 13-day offset, the question of a distinct Êzîdî era, the names of the months and weekdays, the role of the sun’s course, as well as the concrete calculation of festival dates. The mere list of festivals can be found under Festival Calendar; for the autumn pilgrimage festival see Cejna Cemayê.

Status: 2026-06-15 · Sirr taboo observed · ezdixan.de Wiki · Category: Knowledge

1. Classification: A solar ritual calendar

The Êzîdîs do not possess a closed, canonically fixed “church calendar” in the Western sense, but rather a lived order of time, handed down orally and through the clergy. This order is at its core solar: it follows the solar year and the seasons, and it is aligned with a Julian-shifted reckoning scheme, such as is still used today by the Ancient Oriental Christians, the Armenian tradition and other communities of the region [Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 145-152; Spät 2018, pp. 145-149].

The decisive point for understanding all festival dates: the sun (Roj) stands at the centre of Êzîdî piety. Prayer times and festival dates are coupled to the visible course of the sun, sunrise, sunset, solstices, equinoxes (cross-reference: Prayer & Practice). The calendar is thus less an abstract numerical system than a ritual reading of the annual cycle [Açıkyıldız 2010, pp. 67-69, 145-152].

Demarcation (strict): The term “Eastern calendar” here means exclusively the Julian reckoning system. It implies no substantive closeness to Christianity. The Êzîdî festivals have an independent meaning rooted in pre-Abrahamic times.

2. Foundation: The Julian calendar and the 13-day offset

2.1 Why an “April Wednesday”?

The Êzîdîs historically oriented themselves, and in Şingal/Sinjar as well as the region around Lalîş still do today, to the Julian calendar. This now runs about 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. The same offset also separates the Eastern Church festivals from the Western calendar [Spät 2018, pp. 145-149].

Concretely this means:

• What was traditionally dated to 1 April (Julian) corresponds today to 14 April (Gregorian).
• The Êzîdî New Year Sersal / Çarşema Sor: the first Wednesday “at the beginning of April”, is therefore placed, according to the Gregorian reckoning, on the first Wednesday on or after 14 April. This is precisely the source of the seemingly “shifted” April date relative to the astronomical beginning of spring [Wikipedia “Yazidi New Year”; Spät 2018, p. 156].

English-language sources phrase it thus: the festival falls on “the first Wednesday of the April and Nîsan months in the Julian and Seleucid calendars”, which corresponds to “the first Wednesday on or after 14 April according to the Gregorian calendar” [Wikipedia “Yazidi New Year”].

2.2 The day begins in the evening

A central peculiarity of Êzîdî time-reckoning: the day begins not at midnight but at sunset. The celebratory preparations for a festival therefore begin already on the eve: the “Wednesday” of a festival is in practice inaugurated on Tuesday evening [Wikipedia “Yazidi New Year”]. This evening-to-evening counting is shared by the Êzîdî tradition with further Ancient Oriental calendar systems.

2.3 Diaspora practice

Parts of the diaspora increasingly reckon purely Gregorian and place festivals on the nearest weekend, to accommodate work and school routines. The community living in the region (Iraq), by contrast, mostly holds to the Julian-calculated date. Binding in each case is the local clerical determination by the Mîr and Baba Şêx (see Clergy/Religion).

3. The question of an Êzîdî era

3.1 What is attested

In Êzîdî community and media sources, the current year is regularly given with a very high year-number in the range of roughly 6,770 and more: counted from a mythological-ritual starting point that is mostly connected with the Creation or the creation of Adam. Thus community and news sources gave for the New Year 2024 the year-number 6774, for 2020 the number 6770, in each case explicitly located “in the Julian and Seleucid calendar” [Kurdistan Watch (X) 2024; North Press Agency 2020].

Other community sources give the “age” number of the Êzîdî tradition as around 6,760–6,770 years: that is, over 5,000 years before the arrival of Islam and several thousand years before Christianity [yezidisinternational.org; peacock-angel.org].

3.2 How this number is to be classified

Attribution (important): These high year-numbers do not stem from academic religious scholarship, but from the religious self-understanding and community publicity. They are to be understood symbolically and ritually, not historically and precisely: they mark the felt depth and venerable age of one’s own tradition, not a verifiable founding date.

The standard works of Êzîdî research (Kreyenbroek, Açıkyıldız, Spät, Omarkhali) date the historically graspable consolidation of the transmitted Êzîdîsm to the work of Şêx Adî bin Musafir (d. 1162) and emphasise older Mesopotamian-Iranian roots, without canonising a fixed year-number era [Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 27-58; Açıkyıldız 2010, pp. 35-49]. On the question of age, see in detail How old are the Êzîdîs?.

Comparably long religious counts are the Jewish calendar (around 5,780) and the Byzantine world era (around 7,530), these too rest on a theological Creation date, not on historical chronology. The Êzîdî number stands in this series of symbolic world eras.

4. Names of the months (Kurmancî)

The Êzîdîs use, as does the Kurdish-speaking environment as a whole, the Kurmancî-Kurdish month names. Many of these names go back to Ancient Oriental (Babylonian-Aramaic) month designations; Nîsan (April), for example, is related to the ancient Mesopotamian spring month Nisānu. The following table gives the customary Kurmancî names and their Gregorian equivalent [Preply “Months in Kurdish”; cf. Açıkyıldız 2010, p. 67]:

Note on the documentation situation: An exclusively religious-Êzîdî naming of the months (deviating from the general Kurmancî naming) is not consistently documented in the research literature. Religiously significant is above all Nîsan as the month of Creation and New Year. Regional spellings vary.

5. Weekdays and holy days

5.1 Wednesday: the day of Creation

Wednesday (Çarşem) is the holiest weekday of the Êzîdîs. According to Êzîdî myth, the creation of the world was completed on a Wednesday: on this day the rays of the sun first touched the earth and coloured the sky red, hence “Çarşema Sor” (Red Wednesday). At the same time Tawûsî Melek, the Peacock Angel and foremost of the holy beings, descended to the earth and blessed it with peace and fertility [peacock-angel.org “Sere Sal”; Spät 2018, pp. 156-160].

Wednesday is not chosen by chance: just as Tawûsî Melek stands at the centre of the seven holy beings, so Wednesday stands in the middle of the week [pukmedia.com “Red Wednesday”]. From this holiness it follows that the most important Creation and New Year rites fall on a Wednesday (see Section 6).

Convention note: Tawûsî Melek is never “the Devil”. This equation is a centuries-old external defamation. Tawûsî Melek is the foremost of the holy beings and vicegerent of Xwedê (God) on earth [Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 45-58]. See Religion & Culture.

5.2 Saturday: Şemî, the day of rest

Saturday (Şemî) traditionally counts as the day of rest. On this day certain works are set aside; in the transmitted practice it has the character of a weekly pause. The valuing of Şemî as a day of rest is described in research as a further Ancient Oriental element of the Êzîdî order of the week [Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 145-152; Açıkyıldız 2010, pp. 67-69].

5.3 Friday

Friday (În) plays a special role in the winter festivals: Cejna Êzî, the festival of Sultan Êzîd, is placed on the first Friday after 13 December (Gregorian), the Friday before or around the winter solstice [Wikipedia “Feast of Ezid”].

6. How festival dates are calculated

The most important dates result from the combination of Julian date, weekday and the sun’s course. Three guiding examples:

6.1 Çarşema Sor / Sersal: first Wednesday in April (Julian)

• Rule: first Wednesday at the “beginning of Nîsan/April” according to the Julian reckoning.
• Gregorian: first Wednesday on or after 14 April.
• 2026: Wednesday, 15 April 2026.
• Reasoning: Julian 1 April = Gregorian 14 April; the holy day of Creation is a Wednesday [Wikipedia “Yazidi New Year”; Spät 2018, p. 156].

Demarcation (strict): Çarşema Sor / Sersal is NOT Newroz. Newroz (21 March) is a Muslim-Kurdish spring festival with its own origin legend (the blacksmith Kawa against Zahhak). Sersal has an independent reference to Creation, falls weeks later and follows the Julian April reckoning. The equation “Sersal = Êzîdî Newroz” is factually wrong [Açıkyıldız 2010, p. 132].

6.2 Cejna Cemayê: the autumn assembly (October)

• Rule: seven days, traditionally 6–13 October, in honour of Şêx Adî.
• 2026: 6–13 October 2026.
• This is the highest pilgrimage festival; the dating is firmly bound to October (Julian reckoned) [Wikipedia “Cejna Cemayê”]. In detail: Cejna Cemayê.

6.3 Roja Êzî and Cejna Êzî: the December fast

• Roja Êzî (fast): three days, traditionally Tuesday to Thursday, immediately before Cejna Êzî; obligatory for all adult, healthy Êzîdîs. The fast is kept from sunrise to sunset: the sun’s course thus directly determines the daily fasting period.
• Cejna Êzî: first Friday after 13 December (Gregorian), the Friday around the winter solstice, a winter festival of light.
• 2026: fast ~15–17 December; Cejna Êzî presumably 18 December 2026 [Wikipedia “Feast of Ezid”; Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 156-167].

Note: Since the calendar is Julian-aligned and partly coupled to solstice/weekday, the Gregorian dates may deviate by a few days depending on source and region.

7. The sun’s course, solstices and the relation to the annual cycle

The Êzîdî calendar is interlocked with the solar year through four astronomical markers:

• Beginning of spring / April → Creation and New Year (Sersal).
• Summer heat → Çile Havîn, the 40 days of summer (fasting period of the clergy).
• Autumn → Cejna Cemayê, the great assembly in Lalîş.
• Winter solstice / December → Roja Êzî and Cejna Êzî, the festival of light; afterwards Çile Zivistan, the 40 days of winter.

Daily piety too is bound to the sun: prayers are performed at sunrise (towards the east, in the direction of the rising sun) and at sunset (see Prayer & Practice). Sunrise and sunset moreover structure the fasting days and the beginning of each new calendar day [Açıkyıldız 2010, pp. 67-69, 145-152; Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 145-152].

8. Relation to the agricultural season

The calendar is deeply embedded in the agrarian annual cycle of the homeland region (Şingal, Şêxan, Lalîş):

• Sersal in April coincides with the flowering of nature: the red flowers that bloom only in April (poppy, anemones) are gathered for the house blessing; the coloured egg stands for the bursting forth of life. Creation and sowing/spring awakening merge ritually [Spät 2018, pp. 156-162; peacock-angel.org “Sere Sal”].
• Çile Havîn marks the hottest phase of the agrarian year (harvest time), Çile Zivistan the coldest (vegetation rest). Both 40-day periods bind piety and asceticism directly to the heat or cold peak.
• Cejna Cemayê in October lies after the harvest, a time in which travel for the pilgrimage to Lalîş was agriculturally possible.

Research locates Sersal structurally in the series of Mesopotamian spring New Year festivals (Akitu/Zagmuk), yet formulates such lines deliberately cautiously as a religious-historical structural similarity, not as a direct historical derivation [Rodziewicz 2014, pp. 89-103; Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 145-152]. See also Traditions.

9. Sirr status

Certain inner high-festival sequences (e.g. parts of the Sancak procession during Cejna Cemayê) are Sirr (secret, taboo for non-Êzîdîs). This article describes exclusively the publicly accessible calendrical mechanics; the inner detail remains deliberately left out [Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 122-128].

10. State of research

A systematic, independent monograph solely on the “Êzîdî calendar” is so far lacking; the calendar mechanics are documented scattered across the standard works:

• Kreyenbroek 1995: theological embedding, the Sultan-Êzîd question, festival observances, the order of the week.
• Açıkyıldız 2010: standard work; calendar in the context of history and sanctuary.
• Spät 2005/2018: Sersal symbolism, the Julian offset, regional variability.
• Omarkhali 2017: Qewl and festival-prayer texts as a source basis.
• Encyclopaedia Iranica / EI³: lexicon articles “Yazidis”/“Yazidism”.

The high year-numbers (6,770+) are attested community-wise/journalistically and are to be attributed accordingly (see Section 3).

11. Related articles

• Êzîdî Festival Calendar: the complete list of festivals.
• Cejna Cemayê: the great autumn assembly in Lalîş.
• Prayer & Practice: solar prayer times and daily piety.
• Religion & Culture: foundations of belief and Tawûsî Melek.
• How old are the Êzîdîs?: historical depth and questions of dating.
• Traditions: customs in the annual cycle.

Sources

Trust: A = peer-reviewed academic · B = institutional/recognised community · C = journalistic/online community.

Status: 2026-06-15 · Êzîdî conventions observed: Êzîdî/Êzîdîs · Tawûsî Melek ≠ Devil · Çarşema Sor/Sersal ≠ Newroz · Êzîdî era (6,770+) attributed as community-based/symbolic, not historical · Proper names Kurmancî-Latin · Sirr taboo respected.