Happy Persian New Year!!!!

Happy Persian New Year, friends!!!

Or better yet, Eideh Nowrooz Mobarak!!!

Because it is Persian New Year, and because yours truly is Persian/Iranian, this week is kind of a big deal around here.

For example, I spent all of last night cleaning and organizing our house..."spring cleaning" takes on a whole new meaning (and is executed a whole lot more thoroughly) when you have been told, ever since you were a very little girl, that the state of your house on Nowrooz (i.e., "new day" referring to the first day of Spring/Persian New Year) sets the tone for the entire year. I cleaned just about everything I could, and then finally gave up when it came time to vacuum. I convinced myself that it is better to enter the new year with high energy, good spirits, and a dirty carpet vs. with the cleanest carpet around, but a pissy/exhausted disposition. I'd like to think that I made the right decision :).

As far as Nowrooz traditions go, two of the biggest ones are "Char-shanbe-soori" (translated loosely to "Wednesday festival of fire") and the Haft Sin (translated to "seven S's"). On Char-shanbe-soori, Persians jump over a fire to "wash away the past year's sorrow, sadness, sins, etc..." Check out this page to learn more about the tradition. In any city where there is a good population of Persians/Iranians, there will be organized bonfire events where people come together to jump over the fire and celebrate together. Ever since Dr. Love and I have been married, we have opted to celebrate at home by jumping over a candle.

Please excuse my gym gear...had to get my exercise in before jumping over the fire to set a good precedent for the new year ;).

 

As far as the haft sin is concerned, it is full of symbolism (much like many Persian traditions and customs, including the Persian wedding spread, "sofreye aghd").  I was really interested to learn more about the symbolism behind the pieces that we include in our New Year's spread, so I did a little research and voila:

Here's a more zoomed out, unobstructed view of the components of the haft sin:

A haft sin also always includes a fish bowl with fish, where the water symbolizes the infinity of the universe, and the fish represent the life that exists in the universe.  As you can tell, we don't have a fishbowl on our haft sin, because being the fish lovers that we are, we have a full aquarium of them!

 

Two of our goldfish, William and Sebastian, are actually fish that we purchased for Persian New Year 2010 (our first as a married couple). They survived living in a fishbowl through Persian New Year, so we decided to buy them a more permanent home in the form of small aquarium. Three years later, they have many additional friends and a much bigger home :). "To infinity and beyond!!!"

 So, there you have it, friends! Your own little Persian New Year 101 course!!

If you celebrate Persian New Year, Eideh Shoma Mobarak!!! If you don't, I hope that today's post has been interesting to you and that you have a wonderful first day of Spring!

x