#assyriannewyear

I was on a train this afternoon, one which has the internet and the long journey gave me time to gather a bit more info on Assyrian history than some of the other cultures whose New Years I’ve celebrated. I didn’t realise quite how active Assyrian culture was worldwide, and that the 1st April being celebrated as the New Year and the start of the Assyrian calendar is a contemporary custom, begun in the 1950s.

Kha b’Nisan means the first of Nisan, and its the first day of the first month - Nisan - of the Assyrian Calendar. The names of the months - and the structure of the calendar - have quite a lot if common with the Hebrew calendar, though the Assyrian is a lunar, and the Hebrew a lunisolar system. (At some point I will understand what the differences between the systems is. For now, I just know there are some).

Assyrian New Year is celebrated world wide today Here is video from last year celebration in Sydney. In 2005 Turkey allowed its celebration for the first time and has been allowed in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Assyrian Christians may be some of those suffering the most in Syria but the festival is still defiantly celebrated. After all, this is the start of the year 6767, and it seems it’ll take something humongous to stop that legacy continuing.

My research though was mainly about the history of the ancient civilisation of Assyria - much of it for the time before Christianity became the religion, and definietly before the end of Assyria as a place and an empire. There is masses of history, but these were the small facts that stood out to me:

In Middle Assyrian Period, 1365 BC - 1056 BC, sex crimes were interestingly punished: it was the class of the victim, not their gender, that determined the punishment. Its good to hear that gay bashing hasn’t always been the way of the world, and in fact that it was openly accepted. But it is somewhat countered by the idea of good fortune being associated with raping someone of a lower class.

The king at the end of that period, Ashur-bel-kala, built zoos and botanical gardens. Did you know there were zoos before christ?

After the Romans invaded Assyria, many Assyrian people were conscripted into the Roman Army. When the Roman's invaded Britain they took these soldiers with them. In particular many were stationed around Hadrians Wall, evidenced by Aramaic inscriptions found in the area. I’m going out to look for them.

Happy New Year