By now most of you have hopefully seen the wonderful diary by PLU Tim of the President's address to Iranians today, the first day of our new year. Norooz, or Persian New Year, is celebrated each year on the first day of Spring which occurred at 4:44 a.m. PST today. So this morning all around America and the world Persians were gathering to simultaneously ring in the new year. The diary below is my attempt to explain the traditions and rituals that encompass Persian New Year as filtered through my own personal experiences.
This morning and about 5 a.m. the phone calls started, each conversation starts with the same enthusiastic phrase: "Eid - eh - showma - mobarak!" which translates roughly to Happy New Year!. Eid can be literally translated to mean holiday or festival or in this case, the new year celebration. Showma is a formal phrase for you or your and mobarak can literally be translated to mean blessed but is usually used in casual conversation to mean congratulations. Therefor, you may see translations of this phrase as blessed new year, happy new year, or congratulations on the new year. For most of my life it has meant Happy New Year and it is the first phrase that everyone says to each other, so happy new year everyone!
I am an Iranian-american woman who has been living in California since I was six years old. My family is atheist, going back a couple of generations so my explanations of Persian New Year are going to be fairly secular with a bit of history thrown in. Since this is a holiday celebrated at home and among friends and family, each Persian will have slightly different traditions and customs. I hope that other Persians on dKos will fill in their experiences and traditions in the comments section.
I am going to start by explaining that Persian New Year or Norooz (which means new day or new year) is celebrated by all persians including but not limited to Iranians. The Persian Empire (~3000 B.C. to ~500 A.D.) once encompassed large parts of the middle east (see map below). In its wake it left a shared language, Farsi, which is a totally different alphabet and written language than Arabic, and a shared cultural tradition including the celebration of the Norooz or Persian New Year. Currently, Persian New Year is celebrated by some ethnic groups in China, Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia, India, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran. Persian new year is also a Zoroastrian holiday and celebrated by Zoroastrains (or Zees as I call them) all around the world. All that being said the largest group celebrating new years on the first day of spring are Iranians.
(image from www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/gabrmetz/gabr0001.htm)
There are three major celebrations that happen around the new year:
Chahar Shanbeh Soori: which happens the last Tuesday night before new years and whose literal translation "the eve of Red Wednesday" or "the eve of celebration".
Norooz: which is the actual new years and happens on the first day of Spring.
Seezdah Bedar: which happens on the 13th day after new years and translates to "getting rid of thirteen"
Chahar Shanbeh Soori
On this night bonfires are lit in public places and people leap over the flames, shouting:
(Sorkhi-e to az man) Give me your beautiful red color (or health)
(Zardi-e man az to) And take back my sickly pallor (yellow color)
Yes we really do light fires and jump over them, even in America. This week my parents had set up seven fires ( a lucky number) on baking pans set upon bricks in our backyard. About 30 friends and family came over, we bbq'ed and drank, and once it got dark we lit the fires and jumped over them. In Iran the fires are much bigger and more dangerous, adults will often stand outside with pots of water or fire extinguishers in case anything happens. We used to have much bigger fires in our backyard but then the fire department came by and well things have been more tame since then.
In Iran children run through the streets banging on pots and pans with spoons to beat out the last unlucky Wednesday of the year, while they knock on doors to ask for treats (just like Halloween). For good luck, it is customary to prepare special foods such as a persian noodle soup is a favorite. Spring housecleaning is also a component of this holiday and is usually carried out the week before, especially since visitors will be plentiful in the coming weeks.
(image from www.parstimes.com/gallery/firefestival/15.jpg)
Norooz
Norooz, which means new day. It is the new day that starts the year, traditionally the exact astronomical beginning of the Spring. Iranians take that as the beginning of the year. Iranians consider this their biggest celebration of the year. The major part of New Year rituals is setting the "Haft Seen" with seven specific items. In ancient times each of the items corresponded to one of the seven creations and the seven holy immortals protecting them. Today they are changed and modified but some have kept their symbolism. All the seven items start with the letter "S"; this was not the order in ancient times. These seven things usually are: Seeb (apple), Sabze (green grass), Serke (vinager), Samanoo (a meal made out of wheat), Senjed (a special kind of berry), Sekke (coin), and Seer (garlic). Sometimes instead of Serke they put Somagh (sumak, an Iranian spice). Below is a picture of my haft-seen.
Wheat or lentil representing new growth is grown in a flat dish a few days before the New Year and is called Sabzeh (green shoots). Decorated with colorful ribbons, it is kept until Sizdah beh dar, the 13th day of the New Year, and then disposed outdoors. A few live gold fish (the most easily obtainable animal) are placed in a fish bowl. In the old days they would be returned to the riverbanks, but today most people will keep them. Mirrors are placed on the spread with lit candles as a symbol of fire. Some people used to place Qoran on their Sofreh (spread) in order to bless the New Year, others have replaced it with the Divan-e Hafez (poetry book of Hefez), and during "Saal Tahvil" reading some verses from it was popular. After the Saal Tahvil, people hug and kiss each other and wish each other a happy new year. Then they give presents to each other (traditionally cash, coins or gold coins), usually older ones to the younger ones. The first few days are spent visiting older members of the family, relatives and friends. Traditionally on the night before the New Year, most Iranians will have Sabzi Polo Mahi, a special dish of rice cooked with fresh herbs and served with smoked and freshly fried fish. Koukou Sabzi, a mixture of fresh herbs with eggs fried or baked, is also served. The next day rice and noodles (Reshteh Polo) is served.
There were two things that made new years awesome for me as a kid... desserts and money. Traditionally a cornucopia of desserts is served and kept out for visitors. The entire dining room table at our house and every house we visit was covered in every variation of Persian desserts possible, which was totally awesome for my brother and I. As children we received gifts from every adult family that would visit us, in the states this amounted to $10-20 per visit. Usually by the end of the new years celebration we would have $200-300 to buy whatever toys we wanted.
Seezdah Bedar
The 13th day of the new year is called Seezdah Bedar which means "13th out the door" and is spent mostly outdoors. People will leave their homes to go to the parks or local plains for a festive picnic. You must spend Seezdah Bedar in nature. Also on this day, people throw their Sabze away, they believe it is bad luck for sabze to say in the home and that throwing it in moving water will bring good luck. People used to do this in the states until the park rangers began educating folks that throwing stuff in reservoir and rivers isn't the best idea. Iranians regard 13th day as a bad omen and believe that by going into the fields and parks they avoid misfortunes. There are usually a couple of parks that are designated as gather places and advertised on television in California and on the closest Saturday to the 13th day after new years Iranian-americans converge there. It is truly an awesome spectacle to behold. The park we go to is packed to the point you can barely walk on the fields, thousands of Iranians come out, multiple generations, and TONS of delicious food.
Hope you found this interesting and Happy New Year!