<noinclude>{{User:RMCD bot/subject notice|1=Seharane|2=Wikipedia talk:Seharane#s}}
</noinclude>{{More footnotes needed|date=August 2022}}{{Update|date=August 2022}}{{Infobox holiday
| type = ethnic, cultural, national, religious, judaism
| holiday_name = Seharane
| official_name = Seharane
| nickname = Sayeran
| litcolor = Kurdish colors: green, yellow, red; and blue for Israel and Judaism.
| significance = The Seharane is a Kurdish Jewish festival, lasting a few days at the close of Pesach, that traditionally marked the end of winter and the coming of spring. Similar to Kurdish Newroz. It is a patriotic holiday reminding kurdish jews of their origin.
| celebrations = family and other social gatherings, symbolic and feasting
| begins = Tuesday, October 11
| ends = Sunday, October 16
| date =
| duration = 1 week
| frequency = Annual
| relatedto = [[Newroz]]
}}
{{Kurds}}{{Judaism}}
'''Seharane''' ([[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]: סהרנה; [[Kurdish languages|Kurdish]]: ''Sayeran'') is a [[History of the Jews in Kurdistan|Kurdish Jewish]] festival, lasting a few days at the end of [[Passover|Pesach]], that traditionally marked the end of winter and the coming of spring (but has, in Israel been celebrated during [[Sukkot]]).
{{Portal|Kurdistan|Israel|Judaism
}}
The Seharane was celebrated after [[Passover|Pesach]] by all the families in all the [[History of the Jews in Kurdistan|Kurdish Jewish]] communities and is thus a springtime festival. Each family would prepare provisions, taking these, their musical instruments, tents, and leave the towns or villages for the countryside, to celebrate by the lakes and rivers in the beauty of the natural surroundings.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2022-08-07 |title=The Seharane |url=https://archive.jewishagency.org/holidays-and-memorial-days/content/23863 |url-status=live}}</ref> Since the festival lasted for a few days, provisions would include all the religious requirements of the community, with opportunities to replenish food and domestic needs through visiting merchants.<ref name=":0" /> The camp would also be guarded by hired men from the tribe under whose protection the community lived.<ref name=":0" />
Families would arrive at the chosen site in the afternoon and set up camp in clusters.<ref name=":0" /> In the evening, campfires were lit and each family would begin preparing the meal, cooking their own specialities, or re-heating those prepared in advance.<ref name=":0" /> The food was varied and families would offer hospitality to each other, tasting each other's food.<ref name=":0" />
Of necessity, dishes would be created from items that would keep for a day or so in the mild spring weather, or that could be cooked conveniently over a campfire. <ref name=":0" /> Offering hospitality meant that a host would set up a ''kochke'' (divan) in the family tent or hut, and invite people in to sit down alongside him and honour him with their company.<ref name=":0" />
Women would be dressed in their best clothes and jewelry and men in their festival attire and this was a joyful, social occasion for the community.<ref name=":0" /> In addition, the Seharane was a unique opportunity for the young men and women to meet and find a life partner in a society where women were not allowed to go out unaccompanied and where marriages were otherwise arranged without the knowledge of the young people concerned and announced at betrothal, without the couple ever meeting.<ref name=":0" /> At the Seharane, during the preparations and festivities that occupied the heads of families and their household, young people were unsupervised and therefore able to meet discreetly, but freely, in the encampment - and many engagements resulted.<ref name=":0" /> Thus, it also became the custom to perform Erusin (betrothal ceremonies) during the Seharane.<ref name=":0" />
In the evening, the music and dancing would begin, to the beat of the ''Dola'' and the melodic, reedy call of the ''Zerna''.<ref name=":0" /> Kurdish Jewish dances move rhythmically in a line, and often in a circle, the dancers' feet weaving in and out.<ref name=":0" /> Solo singers and dancers would perform, and this was also a time when the community's poets and story-tellers would play a major part in the proceedings.<ref name=":0" /> Festivities would continue into the night, and possibly throughout the first night, until dawn and morning prayers, and the celebration went on for several days.<ref name=":0" />
{{Jews and Judaism}}
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