Happy Nowruz!

Today is Iranian New Year! Nowruz (meaning new day) is both the beginning of Spring and the beginning of Iranian Calendar. It is a time for visiting friends and family, feasting and trying to ensure your good luck for the coming year.

It’s a secular holiday celebrated by Persian Jews, Muslims, Christians, Baha’is, Zoroastrians, agnostics and atheists. Iranians from all different religious backgrounds celebrate it together. The festival actually predates Islam by nearly 2,000 years!

To celebrate tonight they make a table setting called Haft seen (seven “S”) and, just like the name says, there are seven items each starting with the letter “S” in Farsi to eat.

The usual dishes are:

Sabzeh – (wheat, barley or lentil sprouts growing in a dish) – symbolizing rebirth

Samanu (a sweet pudding made from wheat germ) – symbolizing affluence

Senjed (the dried fruit of the oleaster tree) – symbolizing love

Sir (garlic) – symbolizing medicine

Sib (apples) – symbolizing beauty and health

Somaq (berries) – symbolizing (the color of) sunrise 

Serkeh (vinegar) – symbolizing age and patience

 Additional items on the Haft Seen setting are:

Sekkeh (coin) – symbolizes wealth and prosperity

Sonbol (hyacinth) – a spring spring flower

Mahi (goldfish) – symbolizes life

Tokhmeh Morgh (egg) – symbolizes fertility Sham (candle): symbolizes enlightenment

In Azerbaijan, there are a number of sweets peculiar to Nowruz, each symbolizing an aspect of nature and its awakening in spring. ??k?rbura is in the shape of a seed, and it’s embroidered by hand with tweezers.

Seriously. By TWEEZERS!! After all that work you deserve a two week celebration.

Happy Nowruz!