The Syrian coast welcomes January 14 as the Eastern New Year, with everything that includes wheat in its composition, and fires are burning among the crowds that celebrate together, presenting an ancient Syrian heritage. According to the eastern calendar of the people of the coast and several Syrian regions, the holiday is called “Al-Qouzla.”
The root of the verb Quzla is “qazal”, which means to light a fire. It is a holiday that carries a cultural and social heritage par excellence, and is influenced by Ugaritic, Assyrian and Syriac rituals. The basic rituals of this holiday are characterized by offering sacrifices and preparing traditional foods derived mostly from wheat (kibbeh of all kinds, pastries, dumplings, and qarous). (Zhahilotat), where the villagers gather in a house or a square and light a fire, then go around it, while songs and rhymes sound as an expression of joy.
Beliefs and holidays crystallized ten thousand years ago in Syrian villages. Then came the arts and then the writings left by fathers and grandfathers as documents and evidence for researchers to study and document, and to provide information about the secrets of the universe, its innovations, rituals and cultures.
  The Sumerians knew the feast of spring and the wedding of the gods since the fourth millennium BC. It is the feast of the resurrection of the god Tammuz from the world of the dead, and the feast of nature, flowers, and the cycle of life. This feast continued among the Akkadian, Amorite, Canaanite, Phoenician, Assyrian, Aramaic, and Syriac peoples to this day.
Qouzla is not a religious holiday, but rather it is a Syrian social and astronomical occasion, an ancient and authentic Syrian heritage and heritage, and a beautiful tradition that still exists in some areas and neighborhoods of Latakia Governorate, and a number of areas throughout Syria, in Hama, Homs, Idlib, Aleppo, Damascus, Quneitra, and Tartous, as the continuity of celebrating the holiday has extended since the era. Assyrian, where people gather and offer popular hospitality and traditional foods, including tannour bread or qouzla bread, which is baked only on this day, which are dough pies made with oil, black seeds, and pepper. Kibbehs, chard discs, and dough discs stuffed with meat are also prepared, and they are called “zinkel,” and dates, myrtle seeds, and sweets are served.
Some villages also held popular weddings on this holiday, and some people estimated their age in Quzala years. For example, it is said that someone’s age exceeds (90) Quzala years!
This holiday calls for tolerance, reconciliation, helping the poor with material gifts, and exchanging visits on the morning of the holiday.