Nowruz was celebrated by millions of people on the twentieth. The name of the holiday translates directly as new day, but is more often translated as new year. Interestingly, it is the spring festival that begins the new year, not as in the arbitrarily situated Gregorian new year which begins in January. Thus the beginnings of springtime symbolic rebirth mark the beginning of the year. The holiday is said to stretch back as far as the Achaemenid period, but some say it may be older yet. Many of the Nowruz practices are familiar to us. The prevalence of sweets, spring cleaning, painted eggs, the burning of candles, family gatherings and visits, and costumed figures in shopping areas. Perhaps less familiar are the focus on the four traditional elements, especially fire, and astrology. The day of Nowruz is determined by traditional astrological dating. The rituals of fire, particularly the candles and the leaping over a bonfire go back to the Zoroastrian reverence of fire as a symbol of god. In Iran, the figures walking in costume are in blackface, either because they are said to have come from the ground or because of their exposure to the fire that cast soot onto their face. This practice has been criticized by outsiders and some Iranians of African descent recently. Some of these actors have begun only painting half of their faces, others have stopped painting their faces altogether, other still maintain that this tradition is unrelated to American blackface and continue the practice. The symbol of the holiday is a bundle of sprouted grass tied in a red bow, indicating growth. This has to be grown weeks in advance in order to be at the desired state. The practice of Nowruz seems to have spread with the expansion of Persian influence. One thinks of the Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sassanian empires a possible cause of the spread of the festival. Other probable causes are merchants, migrants, refugees, and travelers.
What makes this holiday most interesting is the range of people who celebrate it. For example, it is a major holiday in Shii Iran, Sunni Kurdistan, and the Zoroastrian community in India. I learned about the holiday from the posts some of my Azeri friends put on Facebook. In Azerbaijan, most of the population is Muslim, due to historic ties with Iranian empires, and most of those Muslims are Shii. Due to this tie it seems natural that the holiday celebrated by their long-time former suzerains (and current suzerains for those Azeris living in Iran) and current neighbors should be a holiday celebrated in Baku. The holiday is the continuation of the Zoroastrian spring festival. That it is a pre-Islamic practice makes it somewhat controversial, especially in areas where Wahhabis have been in control. In Taliban territory, the place where the great Buddha was defaced from the mountainside, Nowruz was banned and is only starting to return. Daesh has also targeted Nowruz celebrations in Afghanistan with suicide bombings. The Saudi website Islam Question and Answer holds that celebrating Nowruz is haram. Interestingly, the participation of the Kurds in this ritual is a sign of disagreement in the Sunni community.
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I appreciated learning about Nowruz and how widespread celebration of the holiday is, possibly tied to it preceding Islam and its more ancient history and spread under particular empires. I'd be curious to know if the acceptance in some communities or sects of Islam and not in others extends to other holidays or customs that may have preceded Islam in the region. I couldn't help but think of certain 'pagan' traditions in Europe that preceded Christianity and the fate that they may have met as well.
I am told the Iranian government doesn't like it, but it can do little about it because the holiday is so ingrained in the culture.