Being so far removed from the industrial revolution generationally means that I don’t often question the impacts of such a huge societal shift on my current life. I have never lived on a farm, or worked in a factory. I have never known a community free of the evidence of industry. But there are some traditions that have withstood the shift and can reconnect me to the pre-industrial world.

I was raised to appreciate nature, through camping trips, hikes and the like. But the mainstream holidays I celebrated in my youth seemed to have had nature systematically removed. Christmas involved a tree, but the focus seemed to be on Santa and the presents. Easter included rabbits and eggs, but I recall baskets of candy more clearly. This shift makes sense: holidays that once depended on nature to supply the festivities with special seasonal treats have been freed through industry to be defined through a number of new consumables. The traditions of ancient societies, like the winter solstice celebration of the Celts (which began the traditions of the tree, candles, Yule log, and mistletoe that we now associate with Christmas) and the Zoroastrian celebration of spring (which incorporated the fertility symbolism of eggs, grass, and birds) have been adapted to a very different world. (There is, of course, a huge religious aspect to these ‘adaptations’. Much of that history is troubling and requires a more in-depth discussion than I can provide in this post.)

I have fully embraced our modern industrial world in most ways, but given my experience with poor health caused by industrial food, I also greatly appreciate the simplicity of centuries past. My Celtic heritage sparked my interest in winter solstice traditions when I was a teenager, and in my recent life I’ve been fortunate to learn about the Nowruz celebration of spring through my partner and his Persian family. Nowruz is a Middle Eastern holiday that predates Islam and is one of the few expressions of the ancient Persian culture that persists in the present-day Islamic Republic of Iran. Nowruz originated as a part of Zoroastrianism, a religion dating back to 500 B.C.E in ancient Persia. The followers of Zoroaster believe in equality of all humans, and a respect and reverence for nature. Nowruz is the New Year celebration on the first day of spring and is full of nature symbolism, displayed in a sofreh haft sin, a spread or altar incorporating seven items that begin with an “s” sound. The traditional meal served on Nowruz, sabzi polow va mahi, (herbed rice and fish) is delicious and extremely healthful (I will post pics and recipe soon). This is a holiday worth trying! UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has even stated that Nowruz should be recognized and shared as a celebration that inspires better stewardship of our environment as an international community. (See UN press release at http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2013/sgsm14884.doc.htm )

One aspect of the shift from pre-industrial to industrial life that has become quite apparent to me as I’ve been prepping for Nowruz is the changed focus of family life. Industrialization has allowed our society to produce so much more stuff, but all that production takes a lot of work. And at some point along the way, we have to ask ourselves, what are we working for? When we have the opportunity to spend time with our loved ones, enjoying great food, beauty, and connection with our ancestors and nature, it’s easy to answer that question. Showing my children that the real purpose of our lives lies in our enjoyment of each other and of the bounty of our planet is the best gift that I can give them at this new beginning, in this new season of life and creation. Happy New Year to us all! Eid-e Shoma Mobarak!

Ancient Persian festivities incorporate fire in many different ways, and candles and mirrors are a part of the haft sin and wedding sofreh.

Many elements of nature such as eggs, fruit, and grass are a part of the spread, including sir (garlic).

The beautiful hyacinth or sonbol fills the air with such an amazing fragrance! And I love all of the cooking ingredients displayed, such as sumac powder, vinegar, and of course the garlic. Everyone eats food at a holiday party, but this is a whole different way to honor it!

On Wednesday 20th of March people from Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikestan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, parts of Turkey and many others will celebrate Nowruz. This celebration is most commonly known as the Persian New Year. It marks the beginning of spring and the start of the year 1392 according to the Iranian Calendar. In connection to Nowruz, there are also two other festivities that are part of the New Years celebration. One is called “Chaharshanbe Suri” and it’s prior to Nowruz and the other is “Sizdah Bedar” which is after it. I will try to keep the explanation of this celebration simple, just to give you an idea of what the main aspects of Nowruz are. I will go through these three celebrations/ceremonies in the order that they take place.

1. Chaharshanbe Suri:
Chaharshanbe means Wednesday and Suri can be either interpreted as the word sour meaning feast or sorkhi meaning ruddiness. This festivity is also called the Festival of Fire. It takes place on the eve before Nowruz. During the evening people lit bonfires and jump over them while saying “zardi-ye man az to, sorkhi-ye to az man”. The meaning behind this sentence is stating that you want the fire to take your problems and give you warmth and energy in return. The fire is believed to bring enlightenment for the coming year.
What some people also do during Chaharshanbe Suri is “Fal Gush”. Which means that what you hear in the conversations of others, you interpret as a sign for yourself. Some sort of fortune-telling.
There’s also something which is similar to trick and treating, people wear disguises and go door to door. However they don’t get candy but Ajeel (dried fruits and roasted nuts) and a bucket of water.

2. Nowruz:
Let’s start with the name:Now means new and ruz means day, in Avestan language it also means light. When we add the two words together we find out that Nowruz means New day/New light. That’s the perfect name for the beginning of a New Year, don’t you think?
Nowruz remained a main celebration throughout the centuries, regardless of the different dynasties that were in power in the region at that time. It has been celebrated for at least 3,000 years.
From the first day of Nowruz until the 13^th day, people have the time to visit their relatives. Traditionally starting with visiting the elder ones first. During the day of Nowruz every household has decorated their table with seven items that symbolize different Zoroastrian divinities:

1. Apple – symbolizing Earth
2. Candles – symbolizing Fire
3. Golab – rose water symbolizing Water
4. Goldfish – symbolizing the beginning of the new year
5. Mirror – symbolizing Sky
6. Painted Eggs – symbolizing Humans/Fertility
7. Sabzeh – lentil sprouts, symbolizing Plants/ Rebirth

Next to these, you also find the Haft Sin items. Their names all begin with the letter Sin (S,س ) and Haft means seven. So seven items beginning with the letters S (in Persian):

1. sabzeh – lentil sprouts
2. samanu – a sweet pudding
3. senjed – the dried fruit of the oleander tree
4. sir – garlic
5. sib – apples
6. somaq – sumac berries
7. serkeh – vinegar

In Afghanistan, people prepare Haft Mewa (Seven Fruits) instead of Haft Sin which is more common in Iran. However in my household we do a mix of both. Haft Mewa is made from 7 different dried fruits, served in their own syrup. The dried fruits are: raisin, senjed , pistachio, hazelnut, prune, walnut and almond. Try to make this, I find it quite tasty and it’s healthy too.
Nowruz has its traditional Haji Pirooz. He symbolizes the rebirth of the Sumerian god of sacrifice, Domuzi, who is killed at the end of each year and reborn at the beginning of the New Year. Wearing black make up and a red costume, Haji Pirooz sings and dances through the streets spreading good cheer and the news of the coming New Year.
People believe that whatever a person does on Nowruz will affect the rest of the year. So, be kind to everybody on the 20^th of March if you want your year to be good.

3. Sizdah Bedar:
The thirteenth day of the New Year festival is called Sizdah Bedar. I would translate it as Thirteen Outdoors. To avoid the bad luck associated with the number thirteen people go outdoors and have picnics and parties. Young boys usually play games.Young girls who hope to marry soon are busy with knotting the blades of grass. They express their wish for good fortune in life/love during the knotting of the grass by whispering: “Sizdah Bedar Saal-e Degar Khaaneh-ye Showhar Bacheh Beh Baghal” (Next Sizdah-Bedar, I hope to be in my husband’s home, and holding a baby). So if you’re a young and unmarried lady, you know what you have to do thirteen days after Nowruz.
At the end of the celebrations on this day, the sabzeh grown for the Haft Sin is being thrown away. This to dispose of the bad luck that the sprouts symbolically have been collecting from the household during these past days.

Well I will stop here. I think this should be enough to paint a general picture of Nowruz and the festivities surrounding this celebration. I want to wish my friends, family and everybody who celebrates Nowruz a great new year filled with joy. May your sorrows from last year stay in the past and hopefully you can start the new year fresh with positive vibes and new energy.

Have a splendid day!

Life is absurd and can be wrought by tragedy and it’s very easy to get so swept up in the moment that you can’t possibly contemplate that this moment will pass. But if you just wait it out, if you just give it the proper time and patience, it does. The moment passes and you can breathe again. You will breathe again and you will smile again and you will laugh again. I have and it wasn’t easy to get here and I’ve had plenty of those moments, and sometimes despite having thought that I had learned the virtue of patience, I’ve been impatient and ignorant.  Lucky for me though,  I’ve been surrounded by enough goodness to outweigh the strains of any of those moments. After the Winter, there is always a Spring. Always. Never forget that.

—
“O you,transformer of hearts and spiritual states
make our states the loveliest of states.”

image from
farsinet.com

One of the few memories I have of living in Tehran is this festival and Nowruz.    I was always so excited for the bonfires to be lit, so we could jump over it singing~ zardi-ye man az to, sorkhi-ye to az man.  Of course I never really knew its meaning until later in life, but as a four-year old, just the fact that there were little bonfires lit everywhere and people were singing and celebrating in the streets was huge and exciting.  I believe (not 100% on this memory) but the bonfire that was built was always and my grandmother’s house (Maman) on their roof.  All of the family would get together including all my aunts, uncles, cousins, distant cousins and the servants that worked for my grandmother and their families would join in as well.  We all had great fun eating and celebrating. 

I found a fun website doing the countdown on Nowruz as well.

Here are a few images I got from google images to better show the fire jumping. 

image from payvan.com

image from molon.de

Here it is explained in Wikipedia:  

Chahrshanbeh Souri means Wednesday Feast, from the word sour which means the feast in Persian,^[2] or more plausibly, consider sūr to be a variant of sorkh (red) and take it to refer either to the fire itself or to the ruddiness (sorkhī), meaning good health or ripeness, supposedly obtained by jumping over it,^[2] is an ancient Iranian festival dating back to at least 1700 BCE of the early Zoroastrian era.^[3] Also called the Festival of Fire, it is a prelude to Nowruz, which marks the arrival of spring. The words Chahar Shanbeh mean Wednesday and Suri means red. Bonfires are lit to “keep the sun alive” until early morning.^[4] The celebration usually starts in the evening, with people making bonfires in the streets and jumping over them singing zardi-ye man az to, sorkhi-ye to az man. The literal translation is, my sickly yellow paleness is yours, your fiery red color is mine. This is a purification rite.^[5] Loosely translated, this means you want the fire to take your paleness, sickness, and problems and in turn give you redness, warmth, and energy. There are Zoroastrian religious significance attached to Chaharshanbeh Soori and it serves as a cultural festival for Iranian people: Persian Jews, Persian Muslims, Persian Armenians, Kurds, and Zoroastrians.

Another tradition of this day is to make special ajeel, or mixed nuts and berries. People wear disguises and go door to door knocking on doors as similar to Trick-or-treating. Receiving of the Ajeel is customary, as is receiving of a bucket of water.

Ancient Persians (Iranians) celebrated the last 5 days of the year in their annual obligation feast of all souls, Hamaspathmaedaya (Farvardigan or popularly Forodigan). They believed Faravahar, the guardian angels for humans and also the spirits of dead would come back for reunion. There are the seven Amesha Spenta, that are represented as Haftseen or literally the seven S. These spirits were entertained as honored guests in their old homes, and were bidden a formal ritual farewell at the dawn of the New Year. The festival also coincided with festivals celebrating the creation of fire and humans. In Sassanid period the festival was divided into two distinct pentads, known as the lesser and the greater Pentad, or Panji as it is called today. Gradually the belief developed that the ‘Lesser Panji’ belonged to the souls of children and those who died without sin, whereas ‘Greater Panji’ was truly for all souls.

cais soas.com

Here’s a handy-dandy guide to what you would find in a haftseen display and the idealized wishes it symbolizes for the new year:

Candles, a mirror, a bowl of gold fish, fresh flowers, rose water, a holy book of one’s faith or the poetry books of revered Persian poets Hafiz or Rumi or Khayam, decorated eggs, and a mixed plate of traditional Iranian shirini (pastry) are “non-S” items that have carved an indelible niche at the haftseen table for themselves.  Some also float an orange in a crystal bowl of water to symbolize the planet earth.

People are of course at liberty to add other objects of delight as a personal touch to the setting as well.  (See how different people have put their own spin on the traditional template of this Norooz staple on this Flickr page.)

I’m biased of course but not alone in finding the making and setting of haftseen to be a truly poignant and poetic custom. The heart of the new year’s celebration.

It is at the proximity of the haftseen display that a family gathers to await the exact moment when winter ends and spring begins; and thus dawns the  “New Day” or Norooz.  This year Winter ends tomorrow at approximately 7 am Eastern Standard time.

So when we meet again, winter will be over. It will be spring.  Norooz.  A new day!

Until then, Happy Spring!

And if you observe this beautiful holiday:  Dorood bar shoma!  Norooz  ‘etoon Pirooz!

Nowruz is a most delicious & sweet holiday of the year! And we cant wait it’s coming! More over, Nowruz is a symbol of the Spring & usually after the celebrating of Nowruz warm weather fixes as much to the summer.

Here is our greetings to all Muslim World with the Spring Holiday Nowruz!

President Obama’s Nowruz Message to the Iranian People (Persian)

whitehouse

<iframe width=”640″ height=”360″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/xTQms-9EYaI?feature=player_detailpage” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>

HAPPENINGS IN WASHINGTON

https://www.youtube.com/user/whitehouse?feature=watch

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is telling Iranian citizens they pay a high price for their leaders’ refusal to address the world’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.

Obama’s remarks celebrating Nowruz, the Persian new year, come the day before Obama leaves for Israel. That trip is geared in part toward convincing skeptical Israelis the U.S. is serious about preventing an Iranian nuclear weapon.

Obama says the world is united in that goal. He says there’s a practical solution that would let Iran access nuclear energy, but Iran’s government hasn’t shown its nuclear program is peaceful.

Obama says he hopes Iran’s leaders will change course so Iranians won’t be denied opportunities that citizens from other nations enjoy. He says it will take a sustained effort to overcome decades of mistrust.

L’équinoxe du printemps comme fête : le Nowrouz est la fête traditionnelle iranienne célébrant le nouvel an du calendrier iranien (premier jour du printemps). La fête est célébrée par certaines communautés le 21 mars, et par d’autres le jour de l’équinoxe vernal, qui a lieu le 20, 21 ou 22 mars.Le Nowrouz est célébré depuis au moins 3000 ans (certains mentionnent plus de 15.000 ans) et s’est profondément ancré dans la culture iranienne. Aujourd’hui, la fête de Nowrouz est célébrée dans de nombreux pays qui ont été des territoires ou qui ont été influencés par l’Empire Perse: en dehors de l’Iran, on peut citer l’Irak, l’Afghanistan, des parties du Moyen-Orient aussi bien que dans les ex-républiques soviétiques du Tadjikistan, de l’Ouzbékistan, de l’Azerbaïdjan, du Kazakhstan, et du Kirghizstan. La fête est aussi célébrée par les Parsis en Inde et en Turquie, où elle est appelée Nevruz en Turc et Newroz en Kurde.Le 21 mars, correspondant au Nowrouz, a été reconnu le 23 février 2010, comme la “Journée internationale de la Culture de la Paix” par l’Assemblée générale de l’ONU. Le projet de résolution de la Journée internationale de Nowrouz a été adopté à l’unanimité, reconnaissant cette fête d’origine perse comme une journée internationale.Dans le cadre d’une initiative commune, l’Iran, la République d’Azerbaïdjan, l’Afghanistan, le Tadjikistan, la Turquie, le Turkménistan, le Kazakhstan et le Kirghizstan avaient rédigé conjointement cette résolution. Projet initial de la résolution a été signé, le 23 novembre 2009, au siège de l’ONU, à New York, par les ambassadeurs de ces pays.Ce projet qui s’inscrit totalement dans le cadre des objectifs prônés par la Charte de l’ONU et la Convention internationale de sauvegarde du patrimoine culturel, explique notamment que le Nowrouz symbolise l’unité culturelle et des traditions vieilles de plus de trois millénaires, célébrées par plus de 300 millions de personnes dans le monde, dans une vaste aire géographique allant du Moyen-Orient à l’Asie centrale, en passant par le Caucase, les pays riverains de la Mer noire et les Balkans.Le Nowrouz avait déjà été inscrit le 30 septembre 2009 sur la Liste représentative du patrimoine culturel immatériel de l’humanité par l’UNESCO.

Les symboles de Nowrouz :

Les Haft Sîn : La tradition principale de Nowrouz est la mise en place des Haft Sîn – les sept ‘S’, sept objets dont le nom commence par la lettre S ou “sîn” de l’alphabet Persan, qui sont sept objets spécifiques disposés sur une table correspondant aux sept créations et aux sept immortels les protégeant.

Haji Firûz : Le traditionnel porteur des couleurs de Nowrouz est un personnage appelé Haji Pirûz, ou Hadji Firuz. Il symbolise la renaissance du dieu du sacrifice sumérien, Domuzi, qui était tué à la fin de chaque année et renaissait pour le début de l’année nouvelle. Portant du maquillage noir et un costume rouge, Haji Firûz chante et danse dans les rues avec tambourin et trompette en distribuant ses bons vœux pour l’arrivée de la nouvelle année.

Khaneh tekani : La tradition veut qu’on prépare le renouveau de la nature, en nettoyant la maison de fond en comble un mois auparavant. La fête dure 13 jours et commence par la visite aux grands-parents, puis aux autres membres de la famille et enfin aux amis. Le treizième jour (Sizdeh bedar, « au dehors le 13e », il faut aller pique-niquer. Il s’agit de se débarrasser de la malchance en allant pique-niquer à la campagne et en jetant à l’eau les graines germées, sabzeh, qui sont censées avoir récolté toute la malchance et toutes les maladies.

Magic Eggs Wrap at Pars Market

  Easy and magical way to decorate your Persian New Year Eggs, haft-sin (7-sin) Eggs, in about 5 seconds you can have professional decorated egg

 At Pars Market We made it extremely easy for you to celebrate the Nowrouz, this new product named “MAGIC EGGS” Magic Nowruz Egg comes with a package. This new package set of 12 egg wraps has been created for every taste form old traditional look to fun and playfulness.

Instruction how to use it!

Magic Nowruz Egg No Paint – No Mess

Package Contains 12 Egg Wraps
How to use:
1-Choose large white eggs and boil them first. To prevent cracking make a small hole at the bottom of the egg.
2-Open the package carefully from the bottom.
3-Separate the sleeves from eachother.
4-Slide the eggs into the center of each sleeve.
5-Place them into a bowl and pour boiling water over them until the sleeves shrink tightly around the eggs.

Caution:
Due to use of boiling water adult supervision is required for children. Chocking hazard-Small parts. Not for children under 3 years old.

PARS MARKET LLC

9400 SNOWDEN RIVER PARKWAY # 109
COLUMBIA, MD, 21045

443-259-0002

http://www.parsmarketcolumbia.com

http://parsmarketcolumbia.blogspot.com

Happy Noruz to you all.

http://www.marcopoloartsmag.com/Noruz-Celebrations