Nowruz – The largest cultural festival of the year, celebrated by 300 million people worldwide, is a celebration of rebirth and harmony with nature that lasts for 13 days every year.
All ethnic groups with a common Silk Roads heritage, including those in Afghanistan, India, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Turkey, as well as their diaspora abroad, celebrate Nowruz, also known as Persian New Year (alternately spelled Nauruz, Nauryz, Navruz, Nevruz, Nooruz, Norooz, Norouz, or Novruz).
The enthusiasm for Nowruz was encapsulated in Tuesday’s Google Doodle, which was displayed across over a dozen nations, including the US, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and the UK. (Iran restricts access to Google.)
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Iranian artist and Google Design Director Pendar Yousefi designed the vibrant image with animals playing instruments. He claimed that his “happy childhood memories of Nowruz” served as inspiration for the doodle.
What You Should Know About Nowruz :
When is Nowruz?
As the sun is evenly positioned over the Northern and Southern hemispheres due to the earth’s rotation and tilt, the vernal equinox, which occurs exactly one day before Nowruz, the first day of spring, is celebrated right up to that moment.
Due to differences in time zones, the precise start of Nowruz differs among nations. It occurs in Tehran, Iran on March 20 at 26 seconds after 6.36 a.m. (11:06 p.m., March 19, EDT). Since Nowruz falls on two separate dates in India, it is observed on March 20 and August 15, respectively, this year.
A 2010 resolution established the International Day of Nowruz on March 21, which is the traditional date of the spring equinox.
What kind of celebration is Nowruz today?
Most people spend weeks cleaning their homes in preparation for Nowruz. Gift exchanges, get-together dinners, and family visits are customary during the celebration.
Additionally, celebration customs vary from nation to nation. In Afghanistan, the national sport, buzkashi, involves horse-riding competitors trying to gain control of a decapitated goat body. People also like eating haft mewa, a delicacy made of dried fruits steeped in syrup.
Four Tuesdays are set aside for ceremonies, each representing a different element (water, fire, earth, or wind) before the official start of Nowruz, which marks the official start of spring in Azerbaijan, where the holiday was originally outlawed by the Soviet administration and observed in secret.
Every Iranian household that celebrates sets up a haft-seen, a table filled with objects that have symbolic, fortunate connotations. These things include apples, garlic, vinegar, dried fruit, and sprouts, which can sprout throughout the festival as a symbol of rebirth. On the final day of Nowruz, the sprouts, or Sabze, are usually released into naturally flowing water.
What are its origins?
Though its exact origins are unknown, many people think that Nowruz originated as a holiday about 3,000 years ago, having roots in Zoroastrianism, one of the earliest monotheistic faiths in history. Based on historical records, it appears that Nowruz was observed at Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire, which existed from 550 to 330 BC.
Numerous folktales pertaining to the beginnings of Nowruz highlight a certain hero. In one, the legendary Persian monarch Jamshid rode into the sky in a chariot on the first day of spring, leaving spectators on the ground in awe and inspiring them to begin celebrating the day of that journey.In an alternative account, Jamshid was given the order to fight his twin brother Ahriman, who stood for evil and death and had brought about misfortunes, by a Zoroastrian god. The region that Jamshid controlled saw prosperity when he vanquished Ahriman, symbolizing the victory of good over evil.
What’s changed about Nowruz
In the past several years, Nowruz festivities in Iran have been more austere due to economic hardships and high inflation. Furthermore, yearly public dances honoring Nowruz have turned into a symbol of rebellion in a nation where conservatives disapprove of women dancing with men due to ongoing political conflicts between hardline authorities and liberal youth.
The ancient holiday of Nowruz, which is based on an appreciation and connection with nature, has also caused celebrants to grow more worried about how climate change may damage it. Persis Karim, director of the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies at San Francisco State University, told the BBC last month that “there are rising temperatures, lack of water, and the depletion of natural species everywhere you look.”
“Nowruz is in some ways threatened these days, and this threat may have something to do with realizing how vulnerable our planet is and how we contribute to it.”
Nowruz has gained increased international recognition in spite of—possibly even more importantly—the modern difficulties the festival faces. UNESCO included Nowruz to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009.
“Nowruz is a reminder of the power of culture and heritage to build resilient and sustainable societies at a time when violent extremism seeks to destroy diversity and freedoms,” former UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova stated during the holiday in 2017.
