New Year's Eve Kurdish Style

We were invited to a New Year's Eve party. We hesitatingly accepted, knowing there would be lots of drinking and who knows what else?? Lots of our friends were going and we didn't want to be party poopers so we went. We arrived at 8PM as instructed with hot food in hand. None of us had eaten dinner so we were hungry. Soon after we arrived, the electricity went out and we sat in the dark for more than an hour. A few smart ones had brought candles. People continued to arrive until almost 10:00. At 10 we asked when we were going to eat. They said "oh, we have to dance first, then we eat". The problem was that the sound system had also blown out so there was no music to dance to! They finally got a new sound board and the loud music began, followed by the traditional Kurdish dancing. You can see Darrell dancing in the video here. We both got in there along with some of our colleagues and really had fun with it. Finally sometime after 10:00 we dug into our now cold food when we could wait no longer and others began to follow suit. There definitely was lots of booze flowing and things were getting pretty lively after midnight but nothing out of control. At midnight everyone lit their sparklers and hugged and kissed and wished each other a Happy New Year as confetti covered all of us. They passed the mic around and different ones sang. We found the mic in front of our mouths at one point and sang impromptu "We wish you a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year". Outside in the streets, the whole town was going wild with honking horns, hanging out cars and standing on rooftops, wishing all a Happy New Year. Many were dressed in Santa suits with scary Santa masks and even other kinds of masks. (I think they got their holidays mixed up?) People were eating and drinking and dancing; a real feeling of celebration in the air. We tried to leave our party at 12:30 but were literally dragged back into the dancing circle as they refused to let us go. Food was still being served after midnight and we stood around and ate from the common platter with our spoons in hand. At 1:00 we tried again and this time, succeeded to leave. I felt like I really bonded more with this culture that night. I realized I love these people and long to share more deeply with them. If only I had the tongues of men & of angels...But I do have love.