Destar comes to life again with Xizir

Kurdistan is a geography where the seeds of the hunter-gatherer to settled life were sown 10 thousand years ago.

We pursue the history of seed from prehistoric remains to agricultural data, from history to geography, from cellars to cuisine.

Kurdistan’s mythology, oral history narratives, tales, folk music, and handicrafts all reflect the country’s connection with the seed.

Destar is the name given to an instrument used by the Kurds to grind the seed that consists of two round stones. Destar, a hand mill used by the Kurds for milling wheat, corn, and barley for thousands of years, is still alive today.

Despite all of the technological advancements…

HISTORY LIVES WITHIN DESTAR

Every community has its own set of traditions for life. People are influenced by their circumstances. People seek refuge in their own culture and history in the face of situations that have occurred in life. One of the oldest surviving cultural heritages is destar, which is a woman’s product and is still conserved by women today.

Destar, which started to be used less with the advancement of technology, re-entered our lives as a result of the political realities in Kurdistan in the 1990s, the Turkish state’s pressure and embargoes against Kurdistan communities, and the “food quota for households, this quota being insufficient.”

ALIVE AGAIN WITH XIZIR

Destar, who had been hiding in the houses since the beginning of the month of Xizir in Dersim, began to emerge again.

For Alevis, Xizir is the most sacred ceremony. Xizir heralds abundance, harmony, love, and the arrival of spring. With the arrival of Xizir, each tribe fasts for a different number of weeks and prepares the dish known as Qavut. Lightwood is lit up around the Qavut and left in a room. It is expected that Xizir will pay a visit to that house and take a bite from Qavut, which represents fertility and abundance.

The Qavut tradition, which only a few people try to keep alive nowadays, also keeps its legacy as one of the dishes that challenge the time in the region.

PRESERVING CULTURE IS PROTECTING MEMORY

The villagers warn that Destar, which is being kept alive by a few families in the month of Xizir in Dersim, will be forgotten and vanish in time. They emphasize that they do not want this tradition to disappear.

The villagers stated that as the culture vanished, Xizir stopped coming and added, “We are losing our essence, our religion, and our beliefs. We were unable to preserve the Xizir told us by our elders alive, but we hope that the future generation will carry on this legacy.”

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