People of Qamishli perform “Ziyo” praying for rain

People of Sewiti town, eastern Qamishli, perform an old ritual when the drought bites, by gathering before the time of the Maghrib prayer asking God for rain, following a year of drought in the area. Afterward, people bring the different dishes of food that they cooked on that day, and arrange them on the main road leading to the local cemetery, before the start recite the prayers. The children and men then proceed to eat from all the plates that had been set down the road. The ceremony is considered one of the traditional rituals and old customs practiced in the Kurdish communities in Syria, and people revive it as a kind of charity and to pray to God to provide rain in the dry years when it almost doesn’t rain.