Folio § newroz
Newroz
The new day — the new year of spring
The day Kawa the blacksmith brought down the tyrant Zahhak — the sign of freedom
The story of the name
Newroz is the new day — March 21, when day and night fall equal and spring arrives. In Kurdish it is not only a marker of season: it is a day of fires, of dancing on mountainsides, of Kawa's name spoken aloud. As a given name Newroz is unisex — because a daybreak is new for everyone.
Etymology
Root: nû + roj · Kurmancî
Newroz is the Kurdish form of the same compound that gives Persian Nowrūz (نوروز): nū (new) + rōj (day). The festival itself predates Islam by centuries — Sasanian-era sources already describe a spring-equinox new year. In Kurdish tradition the day is bound to the legend of Kawa and the fall of the tyrant Zahhak; that legend gives Newroz the second meaning the name now also carries: a freedom day.
Idioms
- Newroz pîroz be ‘Blessed Newroz’ — the standard greeting on March 21
Name family
- Kawa · cognate — the smith whose revolt the day commemorates
- Roj · derived — the second element — *day, sun*
Linguistic parallels
- Nowrūz (نوروز) Persiska — Same compound, same festival
- *nava raucah-* Avestiska — ‘new light/day’ — reconstructed Old Iranian form
Updated: 2026-05-02