What is Nowruz?
Nowruz (pronounced no-rooz) marks the Spring equinox and is the Iranian or Persian New Year. The word Nowruz comes from two Farsi words meaning ‘new day.’ It is usually on 20 or 21 March. In Iran it is followed by a 4 day public holiday (it is the most important festival of the year in Iran).
Who celebrates it? While it is a secular festival celebrated by millions of people of different cultures and faiths it remains a holy day for Zoroastrians, Bahais and some Muslim communities.
What do people do?
Spring clean: People start their preparation for the festivities weeks beforehand. They clean their homes from top to bottom, including carpets, windows and curtains. Everyone in the family helps out. Anything broken is repaired or replaced and the house is decorated with flowers. By doing this spring cleaning, people wash away the bad things from the previous year and prepare for better things to come in the new year.
Haftseen table: People prepare a special table in their homes, where they place small dishes holding seven symbolic foods and spices. The names of these foods all start with the letter 's' in Persian and so the table is called the 'seven s's' (haft-seen).
The dishes generally contain wheat or bean sprouts (sabze), vinegar (serke), apples (sib), garlic (sir), a wheat-based pudding called samanu, a red spice called sumac, and senjed, a kind of wild olive which is common in the region. Other symbolic objects can include goldfish, painted eggs, candles and a mirror. The seven s's symbolise life, love, health and prosperity.
Resources: Here's a link to a resource pack for teachers and school from the British Council (but might be more for older children): nowruz_pack_final_1.pdf (britishcouncil.org)
