Syriacs of Hessena celebrate Easter (Nuhomo) with great joy on the slopes of Mount Cudi

HESSENA/MOUNT CUDI, Turkey – After many decades of vacancy and absence, Easter, the feast of the Resurrection or ‘Nuhomo’ in the Syriac language, was celebrated with great joy and enthusiasm in the Syriac village of Hessena, reports the monthly magazine Gazete Sabro.

Many elderlies traveled thousands of miles to celebrate Easter again in the village they were born in, and to relive the happy times of their youth. For decades, they have lived far from their home country in the diaspora. They brought their children and grandchildren along.

As part of the enthusiastic preparations for Nuhomo, eggs were colored and delicacies prepared. Many Christians and Syriacs from surrounding towns and villages joined the residents in the village of Hessena to share in the joy of the Nuhomo holiday. Rituals were performed and the meal was enjoyed together by the villagers. And of course, a tradition on Easter Day, the villagers hit the pointed end of hardboiled eggs against each other to reveal their colorful images to new life.

Hessena is located on the slopes of Mount Cudi in the Silopi district of Şırnak. The Syriac village was one of the places where the Syriacs (Assyrians-Arameans-Chaldeans) were nearly exterminated and subjected to forced emigration in and after 1915 during the Sayfo, Year of the Sword. In later decades the village was pressured to forced evacuation because of armed conflict in the area. There are substantial communities of Hessena Syriacs in Belgium (Mechelen) and France.