Nowruz
Nowruz is the Persian New Year and marks the first day of spring, March 21st. It is also the celebration of the first day of the new year to more than 300 million people all around the world. According to the United Nations, this day has been celebrated for over 3,000 years in the Balkans, the Black Sea Basin, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Middle East and other regions.
A common set up for Nowruz in Iran
As the winter season dwindles down, millions of people look forward to Nowruz as they see it as the renewal of nature and the coming of a new year. In preparation for this celebration, people buy new clothes, families clean their whole house, including washing the carpets, curtains and cleaning the windows. People also take the time to prepare their gardens and plant seeds and trees. In Afghanistan, it's a tradition to plant trees in your yards around this time. Additionally, on the day of celebration, men and women go to the biggest religious sites in the province where a religious banner is raised. If this banner is raised without too much hassle and it is straight-up, people believe that a year full of good produce and peace is ahead. If it's the reverse, people see it as a bad omen. Regardless, this day promotes values of solidarity between families and their friends and neighbourhoods.
Putting Up the Banner
Given the landlocked country that Afghanistan is, people don’t have access to much seafood. However, during this celebration, families get to eat fish at least once a year. In addition to fish, people prepare a dish called haft-sin (which literally translates to 7 S’). This dish is exactly what the name says because it is made of 7 fruits that start with S. This dish is prepared days in advance as it needs to soak all the fruit together for days for it to be ready. Just like the celebration, this dish too originates from the Persian culture. Additionally, families prepare traditional Afghan food where they get to eat with their relatives as they travel from one house to another. It’s very common for cousins to meet at one house and start going to a number of houses together where they will eat more food.
People gather around the sofa (white clothe) to eat together
In addition to eating food and going to each other’s houses, people continue this celebration in one form or the other for about two-three more weeks. Most of the celebration that continues consists of people going to picnics with their families on weekends. These picnics are usually held at parks filled with greenery, at top of the mountains where tulips grow or by streams of water in suburban parts of the country. When my family went for a picnic as part of Nowruz, my dad would bring a lamb which we would kabob in a fire pit. Mostly, people bring their own prepared meals where they get to eat it together outside. Additionally, during these picnics, the kids walk around to pick tulips. During this season, Afghanistan’s mountains and lands are full of red tulips, which is also the national flower of the country.
Tulips
Source:
https://www.un.org/en/observances/international-nowruz-day
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/20/world/what-is-nowruz-trnd/index.html
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