The Remnants of the Myth of Siyâvash in the Kurdish Mourning Rituals of the Hawraman Region (Case Study: Kolwarah)”

The Hawraman region, as one of the important civilizational centers of Iran, possesses an ancient background in historical and cultural domains. Despite this antiquity, many of the cultural elements of the region still remain among the less explored fields and are largely unfamiliar to researchers—elements that are, to some extent, embedded within the layers of the collective unconscious and the public mindset of its inhabitants.
A significant portion of the rituals and traditions of the Kurdish people—one of the deeply rooted Iranian ethnic groups—extends back to the cultural and historical foundations of ancient Iran. The rituals, traditions, festivals, and, in general, the mythological system of any ethnic group can be regarded as a reflection of that group’s cultural antiquity and historical identity.
This research, using a descriptive analytical method along with field investigation, seeks to answer the following question: How does the ritual of “Kolwarah,” as one of the ancient mourning ceremonies of the Hawraman people, reproduce the mythological structure of the story of Siyavash in the Shahnameh?
The findings indicate that Kolwarah —in its solo lament recitations, collective responses, symbolic movements, and metaphorical questions—not only represents a remnant of a pre Islamic ritual, but also preserves the cultural and mythological continuity of the Shahnameh within the living memory of the Kurdish people.