BAGHDAD — Families spread picnic blankets under the trees. An orange-and-white-striped train ferried wide-eyed children around a lake. Teenage boys tried to catch the eye of pretty girls. And roller-bladers weaved through the crowds.
For a few brief hours Wednesday, life returned to Zawra Park as families gathered to celebrate Nowruz, the New Year holiday, in the heart of war-torn Baghdad.
Outside the park's wrought iron gates, there were the usual threats of gunfire and mortar blasts, and in Baghdad alone police recovered 33 bodies, apparent victims of sectarian killings.
But inside the park, the scene was breathtaking for its normality.
"If I had a wish, it would be to see Iraq like this every day," said Ahmed Khalil, who with his friend Haidar Ismail was busy trying to collect girls' phone numbers.
The two young men ambled through the park, scanning the scene with deliberate nonchalance.
As one especially pretty girl walked by amid a cluster of chattering, veiled women, Khalil whispered under his breath, "I wish I were always in your eyes."
Without missing a beat, she shot back, "May God poke out your eyes."
Undeterred, the two young men pressed on.
"I haven't been lucky so far," Khalil admitted with a laugh.
Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq four years ago, there have been precious few opportunities in Baghdad for young couples to meet.
Anxious parents keep their children close to home, fearful of the daily bomb blasts and gunfire. Khalil's 19-year-old buddy, Ismail, dropped out of a teachers training course to avoid the dangerous commute.
But Wednesday was different.
Encouraged by the latest U.S. and Iraqi security crackdown, Kurdish and Arab families thronged to Zawra Park to mark Nowruz, which is celebrated on the first day of spring, particularly among Kurds.
It also is an important festival in Iran and other neighboring countries.
Since the security plan was launched Feb. 13, new police checkpoints and patrols are readily evident across the city, providing people with a sense of safety.
At the park, a long line of cars was carefully searched before the vehicles were allowed into the jammed parking lot. Men and women were then directed into separate lines for a quick pat-down.
Even at the height of Saddam Hussein's oppression of the Kurdish minority, Arab families often joined their Kurdish compatriots in celebrating Nowruz. Since the fall of Hussein, a Sunni Arab who persecuted the nation's Kurds and Shiite Arabs, the day also has become an expression of Kurdish pride and freedom.
