04/01/2022
Happy Assyrian New Year!
Assyrians around the world celebrate the Assyrian New Year every April 1st. According to the ancient Assyrian Calendar, this year marks the year 6772.
It is during this Spring season when we come together to celebrate Mother’s Day, Arbor Day, and Independence Day. In this season, plants grow and flourish, and farms and gardens are spring forth in shades of green, and the soil becomes more fertile for vegetation. In this season, celebrations, trips and festivals begin, and our people wear their authentic Assyrian national costumes, modeled on those that our ancestors used to wear.
I remember quite fondly in the 1960s and 1970s, how our young people and students in universities in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Nineveh and Dohuk would gather to celebrate this holiday. The festivities we participated in were interspersed with dancing, singing, food and socializing, which lasted until the late hours of the day. As for our people now, they are spread in many foreign countries, far from our homeland in Iraq, and some of them have a strong desire to return to their villages and towns, especially in the north of the country, but they are waiting for favorable conditions to achieve this goal, relying on the activities of our political parties and organizations to obtain our legitimate rights in the homeland. We hope that our political leaders in the homeland to come together in a unified manner and present the case for our national rights like the rest of the components of the Iraqi people. I appeal to our people abroad (the Diaspora) and through our national, cultural and religious institutions, to intensify its political and media activity in order to support and solidarity with our parties inside Iraq, to unite all our efforts to serve the cause of our Assyrian people in our homeland Iraq (Bet Nahrain).
From our entire family at the Assyrian American Associating of Chicago, we wish you a most prosperous and joyful Assyrian New Year.
Yours in Assyrianism,
Emmanuel Isho
