Highlanders New Year

March 21 is the day of the vernal equinox and marks the beginning of the sowing season. According to the mountaineers, on this day spring conquers winter, since the duration of daylight and dark reaches parity ..

In ancient times, in Circassian villages, heralds traveled around the village and announced the coming of the New Year, inviting everyone to gather the next day, until the sun rose. At exactly midnight, when they heard the ploughshare, people left their houses with torches. At the same time, an old man descended from the mountains, accompanied by a young girl: both in white robes and with torches lit in their hands. They went to people, carrying fire in their hands as a symbol of warmth, goodness and light.

In the mountains of Dagestan, the New Year was Otsbay - the holiday of the first furrow (also falls on March 21). The holiday began with symbolic plowing of a furrow by a respected villager, sowing grain crops .. In southern Dagestan, the same Otsbai was celebrated, but under a different name - called Yaran Suvar (Sun Festival). According to Lezgin legend, Yaran Suvar symbolizes rebirth, the victory of light over darkness, warmth over cold, life over death.

Navruz-bairam is a holiday of spring and the coming of the New Year according to solar chronology among the Turkish-speaking peoples of the Caucasus (Karachais, Balkars, Nogays, Kalmyks), which coincides with the day of the vernal equinox. Nowruz translated from Farsi means “new day”, and “bayram” is a Turkic word and means “holiday.