My First Nowroze (part 1)

My third new year of this year occured a few days ago. Nowroze. This is probably the most important holiday in Iran. It is actually an ancient Zoroastrian holiday which I think is tolerated by the Islamic government in Iran, probably because it was impossible to prevent it. It has a lot in common with other holidays that welcome the spring.

Preparations are supposed start about a week before the actual holiday. You are supposed to clean the house, make new Spring clothes and grow sprouts. On the last Wednesday before the holiday you are supposed to jump through small bonfires. Then you are supposed to set up a table with a bunch of different things that start with "S" in Persian. These represent 7 good concepts. They include: Sabzeh- sprouts representing rebirth; Samanu- a wheat sprout pudding meaning perhaps patience (because it takes a long time to prepare) or rebirth since it is made of sprouts; Sib- an apple, meaning health and beauty; Senjed- dried lotus fruit candy meaning love; Seer- garlic, meaning medicine and health; Somaq- sumac berries, meaning the sunrise and victory of good over evil; and serkeh- vinegar, meaning age and patience. The table should also have a basket of colored eggs representing fertility, a copy of the Koran or a book of poems by the Persian poet Hafez, candles for each person in the family, money- for prosperity, and flowers.

Here is how Roshan and I celebrated.

We didn't have time to make new clothing. We forgot to jump through fires on Wednesday. Apparently in the past, the Turkish government got really pissed off at people jumping through fires (because they were Kurdish). Then jumping through fires became this rebellion thing. Now I think they are lightening up about it. I think the Kurds jump through fires on Nowroze itself and Iranians jump the Wednesday before. According to the Silk Road episode about Iran, the Iran government doesn't like people jumping through fires either. Well, we just forgot. On Sunday (the 19th), Roshan cleaned the house and then we went out looking for things that start with the letter "S". We bought candles, sumac and vinegar. We also bought some dye and half a dozen eggs. We had garlic. Roshan was fussy about the apples so he said he would buy one later. When we got home, he realized he needed wheat seeds for sprouts. I said we had lentils so he started lentil sprouts. He also said we needed some flat bread. I reminded him that we needed candy. We started boiling the eggs and settled down to eat lunch. Naturally, we forgot about the eggs and all but 2 exploded. Roshan had to go practice so I promised to buy more eggs. I bought 6 more and some mayonaise to make the expoded eggs into egg salad. This time only 2 eggs cracked. I put the surviving 3 with the 2 from the first batch and added the rest to the egg salad. That evening, we dyed the eggs with the red and yellow dye we had bought. I'm sure the dye was made from dyes that were probably banned in US. They were too bright to be good for you. During the dying proccess, one egg fell onto the floor and shattered. Roshan ate it. Monday morning, we got up around 11:45. Roshan called his brother to find out what time the new year would occur. The time of the new year coincides precisely with the spring equinox. In Iran, the radio stations and newspapers announce the exact moment that it will be. It falls somewhere around the 20th or 21st of March. It turned out that the new year had occured half an hour before. Roshan called his family in Iran and then went running out to find an apple, flat bread, and candy. He returned with apples, simits (round pretzel like bread), a package of cookies and a little bottle of wine. He arranged everything on the table along with a rather Christmas tree looking plant, explaining that before the revolution, sarap- wine, was supposed to go on the table. We settled down in front of the table and ate chickpeas, nuts and raisins "resolver of difficulties", cookies, and wine while listening to the Schal Sick Brass Band, a brass band from Germany which plays a lot of neat renditions of Persian songs (their singer is Persian.)