Regional Adaptation of the Yazidis: One Religion, Many Homelands

The Yazidis today live spread across more than a dozen countries — from the Iraqi heartland around Lalîş and Şengal, through the Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia, Russia), to Syria, Turkey, and the Western diaspora (Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, France, North America, Australia). Their faith is thereby the same across nations; their everyday culture has developed differently depending on the host country. This article compares what remains the same everywhere and what adapts regionally — with a special focus on the Caucasian communities.

Terminology note: The correct terms are Êzîdî / Yazidis (Ger. Êzîden); the older form “Yezidi/Jesidic” should be avoided. The mother tongue is Kurmancî, in the Caucasian communities often called Êzdîkî. Tawûsî Melek is the highest of the Seven Angels — never the “Devil”.

Core Thesis: Preservation of the Core, Adaptation at the Surface

The religion of the Yazidis (Êzîdîtî) is, by their own self-understanding, transnational and unchanged: everywhere the same creator God Xwedê (also Ellah) applies, Tawûsî Melek as the highest of the Seven Angels and mediator, the main sanctuary Lalîş (Northern Iraq) as a pilgrimage destination, strict endogamy, and the caste system (Şêx / Pîr / Mirîd). What differs between the countries is not the faith, but its cultural embedding: the everyday language, the festive dishes, the occupational structure, the degree of adaptation to the majority society, and individual adopted practices. The religious core identity remains the common denominator, while regional “shells” have formed around it. This tension — preservation of the core vs. assimilation pressure at the surface — is the central pattern.

The Regions Compared

Region	Preserved Festivals	Adopted Dishes	Language	Degree of Integration	Distinctive Feature
Iraq (Şengal, Şêxan, Lalîş)	all festivals at the original site: Cejna Cemaiyê, Çarşema Sor, Tawûsgêran	Northern Iraqi Kurdish cuisine (own)	Kurmancî (Behdînî) as everyday language	low (heartland)	orthodox center, seat of Mîr and Baba Şêx
Armenia (Armavir/Aragatsotn)	Çarşema Sor, Eyda Êzî	no specific adoption documented	Kurmancî as identity anchor	medium; “conditional coexistence”	transhumant livestock farming; guaranteed parliamentary seat; temple Quba Mêrê Dîwanê (Aknalîç)
Georgia (Tbilisi/Varketili)	Çarşema Sor, Cejna Cemaiyê, Îda Êzî	none documented; Georgian festive cuisine only presumed	Kurmancî/Êzdîkî heavily endangered; everyday → Georgian/Russian	high (urban youth)	headscarf in the temple (orthodox adaptation); 3rd Yazidi temple worldwide
Russia/Ukraine	Caucasian-Yazidi customs	Russian context	Kurmancî + Russian	medium–high	post-Soviet secondary migration from Armenia/Georgia
Syria (Afrîn, Cizîrê)	Çarşema Sor, Cejna Cemaiyê	Syrian-Kurdish cuisine	Kurmancî (Kurmancî)	low–medium	heavily decimated/displaced by the civil war
Turkey (Batman, Mardin)	before emigration, Anatolian-Kurdish	—	Kurmancî	(almost entirely emigrated)	customs live on primarily in the German diaspora
Germany (~200,000)	diaspora festival practice in associations	German everyday life	Kurmancî + German	high	mix of origins (Turkey-, Iraq-, Caucasus-Yazidis) intermingles
Caucasus overall (ex-Soviet)	Newroz/Sersal with Kuloçê serê salê	—	bearers of secular Kurdish cultural modernity (Rya Taze, Radio Yerevan)	—	own Newroz form with a hidden lucky object

Georgia (Focus Tbilisi / Varketili)

Preserved: the inseparability of identity and faith, strict endogamy (Yazidi only with two Yazidi parents), the twice-daily sun prayer, Lalîş as the main sanctuary, the own festivals Çarşema Sor, Cejna Cemaiyê, and Îda Êzî. The Sultan Êzîd Temple (Quba Siltan Êzîd, opened 2015) in Varketili is only the third Yazidi temple worldwide after Lalîş and Aknalîç.

Adopted from the host country (documented): the headscarf worn by women in the temple mirrors Georgian Orthodox church practice. Reciprocal festival culture (mutual invitations to Easter, Ramadan, and one’s own festivals) as lived coexistence. Language shift to Georgian/Russian among the urban youth.

Language: Kurmancî/Êzdîkî is heavily endangered — taught only in the domestic sphere and about twice weekly in the temple/cultural center, not in public schools. Distinctive feature: The Caucasian Yazidis were, during the Soviet era, bearers of a secular Kurdish cultural modernity (the newspaper Rya Taze from 1930, Radio Yerevan, the first Kurmancî novel by Erebê Şemo, Latin and Cyrillic Kurdish alphabets).

Armenia (Armavir / Aragatsotn / Ararat)

Preserved: the largest ethnic minority of the country with its own guaranteed parliamentary seat; transhumant sheep and livestock farming (seasonal migration to high pastures on Aragats and in the Gegham Mountains); strict endogamy and caste system; the festivals Çarşema Sor and Eyda Êzî. The large temple Quba Mêrê Dîwanê in Aknalîç (Armavir Province) is consecrated to Tawûsî Melek and the Seven Angels.

Relationship to the host country: historically especially solidary — Yazidi horsemen fought in 1918 at Sardarabad and Bash-Aparan on the Armenian side. The coexistence is regarded as peaceful but stands under assimilation pressure. Documented ritual adoptions are fewer than in Georgia; both communities share the Soviet-Caucasian cultural modernity.

The Three Caucasian Customs, Properly Classified

1. The Lucky Bread Kuloçê serê salê (own Yazidi, NO adoption)

Yazidis of the former Soviet Union (Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Ukraine) bake a sweet festive bread at the start of the year — the kuloç / kiloç (from seven ingredients: flour, milk, eggs, butter/oil, sugar, among others; related to the Kurdish kade). A small object is baked into the dough: correctly a morî (bead/marble) or bişkok (button), in popular renderings also a coin. The bread is called Kuloçê serê salê (“Bread of the year’s beginning”).

When it is cut, the pieces are assigned by name to the household members and to guardian spirits/saints (among them Xudanê Malê, Memê Şivan, Gavanê Zerzan, Xatûna Fexran, Şêxalê Şemsan). Whoever receives the piece with the morî has dewleta salê — the luck and prosperity of the year. The eldest also scratches the xeta cot (plow furrow) into the bread as a fertility symbol.

Classification: The Yazidis understand this as their own Caucasian-Soviet form of Newroz/Sersal, not as an adoption of the Georgian New Year’s custom — even if structurally it belongs to the family of “lucky breads” (Greek Vasilopita, Armenian Tarehats, Georgian Basila). Distinguishing features are the spring rather than January-1st date, the assignment to Yazidi guardian spirits, and the agrarian symbolism. Important: The Georgian Basila is not the Yazidi custom — the two must not be equated. (Documentation status: confirmed, but community-based via Kurdish-language Yazidi press; standard academic sources do not mention the bread explicitly.)

2. Egg Dyeing at Çarşema Sor (own Yazidi)

For Çarşema Sor (“Red Wednesday”, the first Wednesday from April 14 Greg.), boiled eggs are dyed: red (blood/life), white (purity), green (nature), yellow (sun). They are placed on windows and door thresholds as a symbol of protection and renewal; children play hekkane (egg-tapping). The colorful egg symbolizes creation: according to Yazidi cosmogony, Xwedê created the world from a pearl (Dur) that broke apart — the egg stands for this “pearl that became an egg”. The motif is related to Orthodox Easter egg dyeing (a shared spring/renewal motif); a mutual influence in Georgia/Armenia is plausible but not documented as an adoption. Regional finding: The Yazidis of Armenia historically did not dye eggs (there were no sanctuaries there) — the custom is primarily Iraqi (Lalîş/Şêxan) and was adopted in Armenia only after the temple was built.

3. Georgian Festive Cuisine: Lived Diaspora Practice

In Georgian Yazidi families, Georgian festive cuisine is often served at the turn of the year — above all Satsivi (საცივი, cold-served poultry in a thick walnut-garlic sauce, a classic Georgian New Year’s dish) and Khinkali (ხინკალი, large filled dumplings). Other typical Georgian festive dishes are Gozinaki (caramelized walnuts in honey — the Georgian New Year’s symbol for a “sweet year”), Churchkhela, and Khachapuri (cheese bread).

Classification: Satsivi and Khinkali are Georgian dishes; that Georgian Yazidis eat them at festivals is readily understandable as lived diaspora practice (through the shared Supra and neighborhood culture) — however, they most likely belong to the bourgeois-Georgian New Year (January 1), not to the religious Yazidi New Year Çarşema Sor, which has its own ritual dishes: dyed eggs and the festive bread Sawuk (with oil and sesame, distributed to the poor and brought to graves). An ethnographically documented linkage of Satsivi/Khinkali with the Yazidi New Year does not exist (state of research); it is to be understood as a familial diaspora practice, not as a religious custom.

Evidence & Research Gaps

• Documented: the headscarf in the Tbilisi temple as an orthodox adaptation; the existence of Kuloçê serê salê (several independent Yazidi sources); egg dyeing as a Yazidi Çarşema Sor custom; the Soviet-Caucasian cultural modernity (Rya Taze, Kurdish alphabets).
• Research gap (explicitly marked): the adoption of Georgian New Year’s cuisine (Satsivi, Khinkali, Gozinaki, Churchkhela) by Yazidis is not ethnographically documented (lived diaspora practice); the mutual egg-dyeing influence is plausible but not documented; the breadth of distribution and variants of Kuloçê serê salê are community-documented but ethnographically thin.

Further Reading

• Yazidis in Armenia and Georgia — the oldest diaspora in detail
• Identity: Caucasus vs. Middle East
• Festival Calendar — Çarşema Sor, Cejna Cemaiyê, Îda Êzî
• Cuisine & Dishes — own vs. adopted festive dishes
• Yazidis in Turkey, Syria, and Russia