Just Life | Spring & Persian New Year

Spring is right around the corner and for millions of Iranians, it is the start of a new calendar year.

The Persian New Year or Nowruz, has been celebrated in Iran for thousands of years and it has its origin in the ancient Zoroastrian religion.

Spring is a time of celebration for the Iranians all around the world.

The first day of Spring is the start of a new year in Iran. The first month in the Persian Calendar is the month of "Farvardine".

A heavy dose of Spring cleaning is the rite of passage to the Persian New Year.

As a kid, Spring cleaning was my least favorite thing about the New Year celebration.

Imagine being forced to clean every nook and cranny of your house for two weeks straight. It was exhausting. 

You see, the Spring cleaning is a necessary evil because for twelve days straight after the New Year celebration, a great many people would come to visit and you want your house to be in top notch shape. 

An important part of the New Year celebration is setting up a beautiful table called "Haft Sin".

Can you imagine Christmas without a Christmas tree? We can't have a Persian New Year without the Haft Sin table.

There are some very specific items that are placed on this table year after year.

New Year table at Roya's house

On the Haft sin table, there should be seven items which starts with letter "C" in Persian.

Here are these items:

• Sib (Apple)
• Sir (Garlic)
• Sekeh (Coins)
• Sabzeh (Germinated wheat or lentil. They look like grass)
• Serkeh (Vinegar)
• Samano (A special sweet paste made from wheat)
• Sonbol (Hyacinth)
• Senjed (Fruit from lotus tree)
• Saat (Clock)

Each of these items have special meanings, but this blog isn't long enough to explain them all and to be honest, I am far from being an expert on this topic.

Haft Sin at my house last year

In Iran, schools and universities are closed for two weeks and on the thirteenth day of the New Year, everyone leaves their house to have a picnic with family and friends. It is called "Siz Da Bedar".

Haft sin table setting at my house a few years ago

In Stockton, around 100 Iranians get together at Oak Grove Regional Park to celebrate Siz Da Bedar every year.

This year, the Persian New Year falls on Saturday, March 19th at 9:30 pm.

Signing off until next Monday- Panteha

Just Life| Persian New Year 1394

Last Friday, at 3:45 pm was the start of yet another Persian New Year for millions of Iranians around the world. The Persian New Year or (Nowruz) is the most celebrated holiday in Iran. 

The Iranian calendar changes on the first day of Spring and we just entered the year 1394 in the Persian calendar.

Before Iranians can enjoy this celebration, they do spring cleaning. Spring cleaning is anything but fun. As a kid, I hated it since I had to help out my mom to do the spring cleaning for numerous days before the start of our New Year. I am happy to report that I skipped the Spring cleaning this year and I don't even feel guilty about it one bit.

Another celebration before the Persian New Year, is called " Char Shan Be Sori". On the last Tuesday of the year, we get together with family and friends to make bonfires and we jump over them and we chant special songs hoping for a healthy and prosperous year. Fireworks are also a major part of this celebration.

Jumping over the bonfires for Char Shan Be Sori

Before the start of the New Year, we set a very special table called " Haftsin". 

There are some very specific items that are placed on this table year after year. 

We should have at least seven items on this table that starts with letter "C" in Persian.

Here are these items:

• Sib (Apple)
• Sir (Garlic)
• Sekeh (Coins)
• Sabzeh (Germinated wheat or lentil. They look like grass)
• Serkeh (Vinegar)
• Samano (A special sweet paste made from wheat)
• Sonbol (Hyacinth)
• Senjed (Fruit from lotus tree)
•  Saat (Clock)

Each of these items has a special meaning but this blog isn't long enough to explain them all and to be honest I am far from being an expert on this topic.

This is the Haftsin in my house this year.

The Haftsin table should also include a large mirror, candles, a large bowl of water with a few red goldfish and colored eggs.

This is Haftsin at my aunt's house this year.

Depending on your taste, the Haftsin can be as fancy as you want to make it or as simple as you wish. But no matter what, you have got to have it. 

This year, there was even a Nowurz Celebration at the White house hosted by the First Lady, Michelle Obama. It was an honor to have the Persian New Year being recognized by the first lady of United States.

Nowruz is the time that we visit family and friends. In Iran, schools and universities are closed for 13 days and most people go on vacation during this time. 

New Year dinner at my aunt's house this year

On the 13th day of our New Year, Iranians end their New Year celebrations with a good picnic. In Stockton, we all get together in Oak Grove Regional park to have a great picnic with more than 100 other Iranians. 

Signing off until next Monday- Panteha

Just Life | Persian New Year Part: 1

Persian New Year (Nowruz) is right around the corner and for millions of Iranians, it is the start of a new year. 

Did you know that the Persian calendar starts on the first day of Spring?

This year, our Persian New Year falls on Thursday, March 20th at 9:57 am. It is going to be the year 1393 in the Persian Calendar.  

There are a few things that we have got to do before the New Year and Spring cleaning is one of them.

Spring cleaning is a rite of passage to the New Year. In my parent's house back home, we washed and scrubbed and cleaned everything and anything including every dish in every cupboard. I am not kidding.

Char Shan Be Soori is the other one. On the last Tuesday of the Iranian year, we get together with family and friends to make rows of bonfires in our neighborhood and we jump over them one after the other while chanting. There are also fireworks in every corner of every neighborhood back in Iran.

 Jumping over bonfires. Picture from the Web

A few days before the New Year, we set a very special table called" Haft Sin". There are specials items that are placed on this table year after year. We place seven items on this table and they all start with the letter "C" in Farsi.

My haft sin from a couple of years ago

We keep this table for 13 days after the New year.

Haft Sin at Roya's house

Here are the items on this table:

• Sib (apple)
• Sir (Garlic)
• Sekeh (Coins)
• Serkeh (Vinegar)
• Samano (A special sweet paste made from wheat)
• Sabzeh (Germinated wheat or lentil. They look like grass)
• Sonbol (Hyacinth)
• Senjed (Fruit from lotus tree)
• Saat (Clock) 

Picture from www.anobanini.com

Beside these items, you should have a mirror, candles, a large bowl of water with a few red goldfish, and colored eggs.

Depending on your taste, Haft Sin table can be as fancy as you want to make it or as simple as you wish for. No matter how wealthy or poor, you will find this table in every Iranian's household.

Here are a few examples of Haft sin table from my friends:

Haft sin at Roya's house

Haft sin at Zari's house

Haft sin at my house a few years back

You don't find a mountains of presents on our New Year's table just a few from parents to their children. Kids also receive money as present from relatives and friends.

During the Iranian New Year, you are obligated to visit family and friends, It is called " Eid Didani". In Iran, schools and universities are closed for 13 days during NowRuz. Most offices are also closed for a few days as well.

On the 13th day of our New Year, we all go to parks to have picnics. This is called "Siz Da Bedar."

In Stockton, we all get together in Oak Grove Regional Park. We all cook and share delicious foods with about 200 other Iranians in that picnic.

I will post some pictures of this year's Iranian New Year celebration real soon.

Signing off until next Monday- Panteha

Life & Style | Persian New Year





In my family, we are lucky to celebrate two New Years each year. One American and one Iranian. 

Iranian New year or Norooz starts on the first day of Spring. 

This year, Persian New Year starts on Wednesday, March 20th at 4:01 am and we are celebrating the year 1392. 

Before the new year, all the Iranian families do serious spring cleaning.

For spring cleaning we wash and clean everything and anything including our Persian carpets & curtains & every single dish from every single cabinet. The darn Spring cleaning took a good two weeks to complete.

I even had to help out my grandma with taking down all her curtains and hanging them afterwards since she was too afraid to climb a ladder and I am telling you her house had lots of windows. One of the joys of being an adult is to choose not to do any radical spring cleaning. Some traditions need to be modified, I tell you.

For kids, Norooz means skipping school for 13 straight days.

To celebrate Norooz, we set up a beautiful table that includes at least 7 items which start with sound of C in Farsi and some other traditional items.  We call this table (Haft Sin or seven C's)

These are the items that I place on my table for Norooz.

• Sonbol ( Hyacinth)
• Serkeh (Vinegar)
• Sir (Garlic)
• Sekeh (Coins)
• Sib (Apple)
• Samanoo (Sweet delicacy made from germinated wheat)
• Saat (Clock)
• Cenjed (Dried fruit from the lotus tree)
• A beautiful mirror
• A bowl of water with a red gold fish
• Colorful eggs
• Sabzeh (Lentil or wheat sprouts)
• Candles

Each of these items are metaphors for things such as " beauty, prosperity, fertility and so on and on" but don't ask me to demystify this table for you since I am clueless and so are half of the Iranians who set up this table each year. Let's just say that it tradition and leave it at that.

 

The Tuesday night before our New Year is called Char-Chan-Be-Sori.

To celebrate, we buy fireworks and jump over bonfires. We chant this song as we jump over the fire:

Zardi man as too, Sorkie to az man.( Which basically means: I am giving you my yellowness and taking away your redness. We are just hoping for a healthy New year ahead...I guess)

Back home, we used to get together with all my cousins and neighbors and friends and make rows of bonfires and jump over them and then we enjoyed the fireworks after dark. Then we would go to my grandma's house to have a feast with at least 20 cousins and aunts and uncles. That was a very fun and noisy endeavor.

A week or so before the New Year, Parents usually take their kids shopping for new shoes and clothes. Usually government workers get bonus pay right before the New Year in Iran.

At the moment of the new Year, we gather around our table and pray or read poetry. We only receive gifts from our immediate family. If you are a kid, you also get money from family and friends.

The Persian calendar starts on the first day of Spring. The first month in Persian calendar is called " Farvardine".

For Norooz, you are expected to visit family and friends to wish them happy New Year and it involves going from one house to the next and it involves lots of tea drinking and pastry eating. In a single day, you might end up visiting several families and friends. You have about 2 weeks to make your rounds.

Iranians outside Iran also celebrate Norooz. There are 470,000 Iranians in the U.S.A who celebrate Norooz each year.

So on Tuesday, March 19th, I am going to jump over the fire in Sacramento and then I am going to wake up really early the next day to celebrate the New Iranian Year at 4:01 am in the morning.

On the 13th day after the New Year, all Iranian families go on a picnic. We call this day Siz Da Bedar.

In Stockton, all the Iranians get together in Oak Grove Regional Park every year to have a big picnic to celebrate this day. There are at least  150 Iranians who show up for this picnic each year.

Ok, I am letting you go, I got to start my spring cleaning before it is too late.

Signing off until next Monday- Panteha