Iranian New Year also known as Noruz or Nowruz falls on the March 21^st. The first month is known as Favardin and Noruz falls on this day.

Persians, Afghans and other groups start preparing for the Nowruz with a major spring-cleaning of their houses, the purchase of new clothes to wear for the new year and the purchase of flowers (in particular the hyacinth and the tulip are popular and conspicuous).

In association with the “rebirth of nature”, extensive spring-cleaning is a national tradition observed by almost every household in Persia. This is also extended to personal attire, and it is customary to buy at least one set of new clothes. On the New Year’s day, families dress in their new clothes and start the twelve-day celebrations by visiting the elders of their family, then the rest of their family and finally their friends. On the thirteenth day families leave their homes and picnic outdoors.

During the Noruz holidays people are expected to visit one another (mostly limited to families, friends and neighbors) in the form of short house visits, which are usually reciprocated. Typically, on the first day of Noruz, family members gather around the table, with the Haft Seen on the table or set next to it, and await the exact moment of the arrival of the spring. At that time gifts are exchanged. Later in the day, the first house visits are paid to the most senior family members. Typically, the youth will visit the elders first, and the elders return their visit later. The visits naturally have to be relatively short, otherwise one will not be able to visit everybody on their list. A typical visit is around 30 minutes, where you often run into other visiting relatives and friends who happen to be paying a visit to the same house at that time. Because of the house visits, you make sure you have a sufficient supply of pastry, cookies, fresh and dried fruits and special nuts on hand, as you typically serve your visitors with these items with tea or sherbet. Many Iranians will throw large Noruz parties in a central location as a way of dealing with the long distances between groups of friends and family.

Some Noruz celebrants believe that whatever a person does on Noruz will affect the rest of the year. So, if a person is warm and kind to their relatives, friends and neighbors on Noruz, then the New Year will be a good one. On the other hand, if there are fights and disagreements, the year will be a bad one.

One tradition that may not be very widespread (that is, it may belong to only a few families) is to place something sweet, such as honey or candy, in a safe place outside overnight. On the first morning of the new year, the first person up brings the sweet stuff into the house as another means of attaining a good new year.

In preparation for the New Year, Iranians grow grains of wheat, barley or lentils to use as decorations for their houses. This decoration is a symbol for growth and prosperity and must be kept in the house for thirteen day after which it is thrown into the river.

They clean their houses during the days leading up to the New Year and they either make or buy new clothes for themselves and their family. If they cannot afford to much they try to have at least one piece of new clothing often a pair of shoes.

A special table is set up with seven articles which all must begin with the letter “s” for Haft-sin. They are:

• Sonbul – hyacinth

• Sabzeh – green shoots grown from grain

• Samanoo – a sweet pudding made of green wheat

• Serkeh – vinegar

• Sumac – a herb

• Seeb – an apple

• Senjed – bohemian olives.

Other objects are a bowl of colored eggs, candles, a mirror and a bowl of rose water.

In old days in Persia now Iran people used to exchange eggs as gifts on New Year’s Day, to suggest the idea of new life beginning.

Refrences:

Wikipedia (2008). Nowruz. Retrieven on March 15, 2008 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nowruz

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Shabe Chelle (Persian) is an Iranian festival originally celebrated on the Northern Hemisphere’s shortest day of the year, that is, on the eve of the Winter Solstice.

Following the Iranian calendar reform of 1925, which pegged some seasonal events to specific days of the calendar, Yalda came to be celebrated on the 1st day of the 10th month (Dey). Subject to seasonal drift, this day may fall a day before or a day after the actual Winter Solstice.

History and development

The word Yalda derives from a Syriac term signifying “birth.” Due to it being the longest night, “Yalda” was celebrated as the day Mithra was born. The calibration carried on in to Zoroastrianism, ancient Greece, Roman Empire and was adopted by Christians as the birthday of Christ. It is an ancient Indo-European celebration, and a part of the festival was to decorate evergreen trees, which symbolize life and strength, even in today’s Iran. A Winter Solstice festival – Shabe Chelle – had already been celebrated throughout the Iranian world even prior to the introduction of the word Yalda during the early Sassanid Era.

The process by which the term Yalda entered the Persian language is not conclusively established, but is probably attributable to Syriac Christians who received protection from the Sassanid monarchs. While these Christians that brought Yalda to Iran presumably associated the festival with the birth of Christ, the proximity of December 25th to the day of the Winter Solstice (December 21st or 22nd) eventually led to the two festivals being conflated and celebrated as one.

Yalda today

Following the fall of the Sassanid Empire and the subsequent rise of Islam, the religious significance of the event was lost, and like all the other Zoroastrian festivals Yalda became merely a social occasion when family and close friends would get together. Nonetheless, the obligatory serving of fresh fruit during mid-winter is reminiscent of the ancient customs of invoking the divinities to request protection of the winter crop.

The tradition of family gathering survives today in full force. Iranian radio and television continue to have special programming for the night of Yalda.

As a novelty, watermelons may appear at the Korsi. The Korsi is traditional furniture similar to a very short table, around which the family sit on the ground. On it, a blanket made of wool filling is thrown, people leave their legs under the blanket. Inside the korsi, heat is generated by means of coal, electricity or gas heaters.

References

• Price, Massoume (December 8, 1999), Shab-e Yalda, Burlingame: The Iranian, <http://www.iranian.com/History/1999/December/Yalda/>
• Kianush, K. (August 07, 2005), The Festival of ‘Yalda’, Highworth: Art Arena

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