Beginning of spring marks the first day of the new year in the Persian calendar, Nowruz. Nowruz is a festival celebrated by many people worldwide, which honors the arrival of spring based on the Northern Hemisphere spring equinox. Nowruz was part of traditions of the Persian Empire, and has roots in Zoroastrianism. It means new day, new life on earth, victory of light over darkness and triumph of spring over winter.

Zoroastrianism is the first Monotheistic Religion originated in Ancient Persia, which follows the teachings of Zoraster. The religion mainly focuses on right choices, good thoughts, nice words, and ethical deeds. Today there are scattered communities of Zoroastrians, in places like India, the Middle East, and across Asia. Once the Islamic Arabs invaded Persia, most people converted to Islam and the remaining Zoroastrians fled and resided in neighboring countries.

Zoroastrians took their traditions including the celebration of Nowruz to Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Balkans, and beyond. Today, people with different ethnicities and from various countries including Iran, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Israel, Georgia, Bosnia, Albania, India, China, Russia, and finally Canada and our country, the U.S. welcome spring by celebrating Nowruz together.

Festival begins with fire and water rituals and continues with cleaning and decorating the house, preparing “haft sin” decoration, visiting family and friends, and exchanging gifts. My favorite part is Chaharshnabe Suri, celebrated on the eve of last Wednesday of old year by dancing around fire in groups, jumping over fire and setting up fireworks. People tell the fire "my yellow is yours, your red is mine" to exchange their weakness and sickness by strength and warmth of fire. This purifies all the bad luck from the previous year and focuses on the New Year and good goodluck.

At the start of New Year, people gather around the “haft sin” table meaning seven S and count down for the start of new year. The table includes 7 items starting with a S letter in Farsi related to the seven Ameshasepantas in the Zend-Avesta, holy book of Zoroastrians . They are symbols of four elements of Fire, Earth, Air, Water, and the three forms of life, Humans, Animals and Plants. These 7 items include “Seeb, Seer, Sabzeh, Samanu, Serkeh, Senjed, Sumac” and more, meaning apple, garlic, sprouted wheat, sweet pudding, vinegar, oleaster, and some sort of Persian spice. The table is usually decorated further with flowers, a mirror, candles, painted eggs, goldfish in a bowl of water.

In summary it is a fun time for kids. Shopping for new clothes , participating in house cleaning or “Khaneh Tekan”, and enjoying special foods . People buy new clothes and clean their houses to have a fresh start for a new year. Usually kids receive lots of money wrapped in envelopes and save them to buy all they wish. Finally comes the part that most of us are interested in, special foods. I like Sabzi polo which is rice with cilantro, parsley, and basil with 2 types of special fish which include Trout or Caspian Sea White Fish which is a must to try.