Happy Nowruz! Yay! Winter’s Over!

I love the Spring Equinox, because I always wonder if I’m going to make it through the winter with my sanity intact. Waking up on the first day of spring, for me, is like bursting to the surface and gulping a big, delicious, life-saving draft of air after having been deep underwater for way too long. It’s a relief. It’s the very essence of the love of life which seemed to have been slipping from my grasp for the past few months. If that doesn’t make you want to celebrate, nothing will.

It seems that I am not alone in that feeling. I’ve just discovered that this day (plus the 12 days to follow) have been celebrated as the Persian New Year for about 3,000 years. Its roots lie in the Zoroastrian religion. The holiday is called Nowruz, which means “new day”.

The more I learn about the festivities, the more I wish this holiday were a traditional American custom. With all this chaos and anxiety, change and upheaval, tension and frustration, I think we could all use a little Nowruz right about now. But it’s primarily celebrated by Zoroastrians, Baha’is, and Shia Muslims in Iran and Afghanistan, but also in Albania, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China, and Iranian communities in the Americas and in Europe.

It is estimated that 300 million people worldwide celebrate this festival. That’s a huge chunk of the planet, so I’m a little embarrassed that I had never heard of Nowruz before. And what are they celebrating? All things joyous, in my opinion: The arrival of spring, the triumph of light over darkness, the cleansing of negativity, fertility, renewal, rebirth, rejuvenation, new beginnings, nature and the environment, health, happiness, love, beauty, prosperity, hope and growth.

The traditional ways of celebrating Nowruz are different depending upon the culture you find yourself in, but a lot of them sound delightful. There are dances, gift exchanges, poetry recitations and folk music. Just before Nowruz, they jump over bonfires, asking the fire to take away illness and problems and replace them with health, energy, and warmth. The 4 elements of water, fire, earth and wind are celebrated. Some cultures start by doing a thorough spring cleaning. There is a tradition of spoon banging which sounds much like trick-or- treating, complete with costumes, but instead of ringing a doorbell, they bang spoons against plates or bowls to ask for treats. This festival also has a herald that seems similar to Santa Claus. His name is Amu Nowruz, and he gives children gifts. He has a companion named Haji Firuz who dances and sings and plays the tambourine to cheer people. It is also a time for buying new clothes and flowers, and visiting family and friends. The last day of Nowruz is a day to celebrate nature, the outdoors, and the environment, and often involves a picnic.

Traditionally, people will set up a table with seven things beginning with the letter s (in their language). These things represent some of the qualities mentioned above, such as health, prosperity, and hope. Sometimes the tables also include a mirror, candles, painted eggs, a bowl of water, goldfish, coins, hyacinth and sweets.

And of course, like any respectable holiday, there’s food, and lots of it. Again, the food will differ from one country to the next, but some things might include herbed rice with fish, herb frittata, noodle rice, saffron rice, stuffed vine leaves, baklava and other confections, spinach and lamb curry, rice flour biscuits, dried fruit in syrup, barley soup, dates, lentils, pomegranates, kiwis, oranges and apples. It all sounds delicious to me.

What appeals to me most about Nowruz, though, is what it says about humans in general. Our governments would have us believe, for example, that Americans and Iranians are enemies, and our people couldn’t possibly be more different. We are each taught to demonize the other (and that alone should be a huge red flag to anyone who is capable of critical thinking). But at the end of the day, when you strip away all the political stupidity and the prejudice and ignorance, we all want the same things. We want our lives to be better. We want happiness, prosperity, and love. We want to have hope. We want to commune with the natural world rather than destroy it. And most of all, we just want to get through the damned winter with our sanity intact.

Happy Nowruz, everyone. May this year take us all by surprise and bring us a little hope and happiness. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.