Nowruzย is the Iranian/Persian new year, and it means โnew dayโ in Persian. This new year falls on the first day of the Persian calendar (around the same time as the Spring Equinox). Nowruz symbolises the end of darkness and the rebirth of nature, celebrated by ethnicities worldwide through eating, dancing, and cleaning their homes.
The United Nations has officially declared 21st March as International Nowruz Day.
The Overview Of Nowruz
Rooted in Zoroastrianism, Nowruz is a 3,000-year-old celebration of spring. Historical accounts suggest that Nowruz celebrations occurred in ancient Persepolis during the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 B.C.). Its mythology is centred around a Persian king who soared across the skies in a jewelled chariot on the first day of spring.
Read More:ย Google Celebrates Nowruz 2025 with a Special Doodle
The festival begins on the first day of the Iranian calendar, usually on or around 20 March, or Spring Equinox, and lasts for 13 days. It has been celebrated by many peoples across West Asia, Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Black Sea Basin, the Balkans and South Asia for over 3,000 years. In the modern era, this festival is a holy day for Zoroastrians, Bahรกสผรญs and Ismaสฟili Shia Muslims.
The Celebrations
The celebration of the festival typically involves large gatherings of friends and family. Street festivals, bonfires, fireworks, poetry and folk music are a common occurrence. Celebrants are seen engaging in spring cleaning A.K.A โkhaneh tekani,โ gift exchanges, family gatherings, buying new clothes and more. The most important part of this celebration is food โ and lots of it.
โAll houses undergo a big cleaning,โ Zohreh Mirsharif, a world languages and cultures professor at American University, shared. โPeople will change the colours of the walls; they will wash everything. This is the new beginning.โ
As this fest is considered a new beginning, people are seen indulging in activities to put all their negative past aside and start new.ย One common ritual for this involves leaping over fire and streams to cleanse the past yearโs negativity.
The Haft-Sin Table
Another very notable Iranian tradition is the ceremonial Half-Sin table. It involves a family gathering for a feast on the table. This table supposedly has seven items, all of which start from the Persian letter “sin.” These items include apples (seebNew Year) for beauty, garlic (seer) for health, vinegar (serkeh) for patience, hyacinth (sonbol) for spring, sweet pudding (samanu) for fertility, sprouts (sabzeh) for rebirth and coins (sekeh) for wealth. Besides these elements, the table might also include a mirror to symbolically reflect the past year, painted eggs to represent fertility, a goldfish to represent new life and candles to show light and happiness.
Itโs believed that the sabzeh absorbs the previous year’s pain and trouble. If you throw this in the water, you will be letting go of those misfortunes with the new year.
Indeed the festival is of immense importance to religious groups and secular nations worldwide. We wish a Happyย Nowruz Dayย to all those who are celebrating. To the new beginnings!
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