Happy NowRuz - 20th March 2022

[Deepak Kiran]

Nowruz – or “new day” in English – is the ancient celebration of the Iranian new year.

in 2022 Nowruz will occur on Sunday 20 March, when the day will be as long as the night and the start of Spring arrives.

The secular festival stretches back over 3,000 years and was shaped by the people of the Zoroastrian faith, believed to be the world’s oldest religion.

The story behind Nowruz festival and why it’s celebrated​

“The celebration of Nowruz dates back to at least the 11th century A.D,” explained Pardis Mahdavi, Dean of Social Sciences for Arizona State University in an article for The Conversation.

The festival is based off of the story of an ancient king called King Jamshid.

Mahdavi says: “King Jamshid noticed that during the long, dark winter months, his subjects descended into darkness as the Earth worked to heal itself from the harvests of the fall.


“When spring finally came and the Earth began to blossom after the healing period of winter, the king wanted to mark that as the start of the new year – a time of new beginnings for people and the Earth.”

How is Nowruz celebrated?​

People celebrate Nowruz by joining hands and jumping over fires in an event known as “Scarlet Wednesday.”

The old story goes that when spring blossomed, the ancient King Jamshid noticed how quarrelsome his subjects had become over the winter months.

In order to mark the end of the darkness, he created a festival called Shab-e-Charshanbeh Souri, which translates as “Scarlet Wednesday.”

The festival involves jumping over a series of fires – a tradition brought by the Zoroastrians, who celebrated fire as the sign of everlasting strength and health.

“The idea behind Charshanbeh-Souri is to jump over the fires to cleanse oneself of the ills – physical, emotional and societal – of the past year,” says Mahdavi.

“It is a way to prepare for the rebirth that Nowruz brings. It is also a time of forgiveness. Joining hands to jump over the fire is a way to heal rifts that are threatening to fracture families all over the world.”

 

[Deepak Kiran]

Nowruz 2022: Google celebrates Persian New Year with a colourful Doodle​

Celebrating the first day of spring and an official start to Persian New Year, Google celebrated Nowruz 2022 with a colourful doodle.

Nowruz is one of the oldest holidays and has a rich history that dates back over 3,000 years. The 13-day celebration begins with the vernal equinox when the sun crosses the equator. This widely symbolizes rebirth and the affirmation of life in harmony with nature.



The doodle depicted budding leaves and blooming flowers in a colourful manner. On the day of Nowruz, millions around the world put on festivals, feasts and enjoy outdoor activities. Common traditions during Nowruz include house cleaning, visiting friends and neighbours, an

 

[Deepak Kiran]

Nowruz, or "new day" in Persian, is an ancient festival that marks the beginning of spring and celebrates the rebirth of nature. And naturally, it has a lot to do with fresh, green foods just beginning to poke out of the ground that remind us winter is not, in fact, eternal.

Nowruz begins at the stroke of the vernal equinox, when the sun crosses the equator. This year it came early in the morning of March 20. When the equinox comes, millions of families of Iranian descent gather around a ceremonial table known as the haftseen. (Think colorful, elaborate Day Of The Dead-type altars meet a mashup of Easter and Passover traditions.) Young and old hold hands and count down to the New Year together and cheer Eide Shoma Mobarak, or Happy New Year!

The haftseen table is a relatively recent addition to Nowruz – a folksy tradition with murky beginnings. "We do not even find this spread mentioned in the chronicles of travelers to Iran up to the modern times

Haftseen "seems to have come into vogue only in the last century, owing to publicity in the media," according to Columbia University's extensive entry in its Encyclopedia Iranica.


And yet, "its essential items perfectly afford reasonable explanation as the reflections of the pastoral and sedentary conditions of ancient Iranians and of their beliefs."





In every home, the haftseen table is decorated with seven items – since seven is considered a lucky number. Each item begins with the letter sin (s) in Persian, and each item is a symbol of spring and renewal, including:

1. Seeb (apple), representing beauty
2. Seer (garlic), representing good health
3. Serkeh (vinegar), representing patience
4. Sonbol (hyacinth), representing spring
5. Samanu (sweet pudding), representing fertility
6. Sabzeh (sprouts), representing rebirth
7. Sekeh (coins), representing prosperity

Other words beginning with the letter "s" can also be used, such as the spice sumac, its brilliant gold color representing the sunrise, or senjed, a dried fruit of the Lotus tree, representing love.


Some families even add a little more flair. Haftseen tables can also include a Quran, a book of poetry, a mirror and candles (reflecting into the future), a goldfish swimming in a bowl (representing life), painted eggs (representing fertility), and all kinds of sweets and fruits.

For many families, Nowruz means preparing special dishes like smoked fish and herbed rice. Speaking to Tell Me More host Michel Martin, Iranian-American actress Nazanin Boniadi, of the hit TV shows Scandal and Homeland, says food plays an important part in her Nowruz celebrations.

"I love the sabzi polo mahi, which is fish and herbed rice," she told Martin in 2014. "It's a massive tradition in our house to have that."

Chef and author Donia Bijan, who was born in Iran, told Martin in 2013 that all that chopping of parsley, cilantro and dill for that dish was the hardest part. "It certainly teaches you that good cooking does require a lot of patience," she says.

Other dishes include soup with noodles "that symbolize unraveling the difficulties in the year to come," as NPR commentator Bonny Wolf has reported, and of course, eggs represent fertility in practically every culture. One personal favorite is karaf, an exquisite celery, mint, dried lime and beef stew served over white rice.

Nowruz is also a time for spring cleaning, buying new clothes, visiting friends and relatives and renewing bonds. On the 13th day of the New Year, the celebrations finally end. Since the 13th is an unlucky day, entire families go on picnics and take with them the sprouts (sabzeh) from the haftseen table. The sabzeh is thrown into flowing water, symbolizing a "letting go" of the misfortunes of the coming year.

In 2010, the United Nations first recognized International Nowruz Day, as it is celebrated in countries around the world, including Afghanistan, Albania, India, Iran, and Turkey. Here in the U.S., the day is celebrated across many diaspora communities from New York to Chicago, Florida to Texas.