) 6769 (
Nisan, April 1st 2019) in Nohadra (
Duhok),
Iraq The month of
Nisan was around the time of the
vernal equinox, which is around March 21. (In the
Hebrew calendar, Nisan may start a couple of weeks before the equinox.) Now the name "Nisan" is used for April, so the first of Nisan is April 1. The
Vernal equinox is celebrated throughout
Greater Iran as
Noruz (meaning "New Day") on 21 March. However, in the ancient
Assyrian,
Akkadian and
Babylonian traditions, the spring festival was celebrated in the first days of the month known as "
Nisan" and the calendar adopted by the ancient Assyrians had the month "Nisan" at the beginning of the calendar lending to the term "Kha b-Nisan", or the "first of Nisan". The modern observance of Akitu began in the 1960s during the Assyrian intellectual renaissance.''
Due to political oppression, however, the celebrations were largely private until the 1990s. In 2002,
Assyrians in Syria celebrated the event with a mass wedding of 16 couples and over 25,000 attendees. After the formation of
Turkey, Kha b-Nisan along with
Nowruz were banned from public celebration.
Assyrians in Turkey were first allowed to publicly celebrate Kha b-Nisan in 2005, after organizers received permission from the government to stage the event, in light of democratic reforms adopted in support of Turkey's EU membership bid. Around 5,000 people "including large groups of visiting ethnic Assyrians from Europe, Syria and Iraq" took part in the Kha b-Nisan celebrations. One of the largest Assyrian New Year celebrations took place in
Iraq in 2008. Public celebrations were not allowed by
Saddam Hussein's regime prior to the start of the Iraq war. The event was organized by the
Assyrian Democratic Movement (Zowaa) and between 45,000 and 65,000 people took part in the parade. In 2004, Hon.
George Radanovich of the
California State Assembly recognized the Assyrian New Year and extended his wishes to the Assyrian community in
California. This was later followed by a letter from the California governor,
Arnold Schwarzenegger, to the Assyrian community in California, congratulating them on the annual celebration. In 2020 festivities were cancelled in northeastern Syria due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. ==Celebration==