Jahanshah Rashidian
The first day of spring is called Nowruz “New Day” and is the first day of the New Year in Iran, Afghanistan, and central Asia including parts of China, wherever there is a reminder of the ancient Persian culture. Nowruz usually falls on the 20th or 21st. Nowruz is celebrated as a pleasant day remaining from the pre-Islamic tradition.
Nowruz in the end of winter
As Nowruz coincides with the first day of spring, it begins in most parts of ancient Persia with blossoms of flowers, the beautifying of surroundings and the renewal of life normally associated with spring. Nowruz is associated with the renewal of abundance and a natural sense of happiness that emerges with the change in season from the cold of winter. In short, Nowruz enriches life with most abundant resources with usual sense of happiness above all, as opposed to the “cold” feelings of winter and a new warm of life.
Astronomical calculation
The length of day and night is in Nowruz equal. Equinox happens twice a year, first one is the 21st March and the second one is the 23rd September. This shows a precision for Nowruz which marks the day that the sun moves across the celestial equator and lies directly above the Earth’s equator. So, Nowruz reflects the knowledge of ancient Persians in astrology as well.
Nowruz is secular
The celebrity and norms of Nowruz reflect the ancient cultural customs and the great civilisation of East and West alike, influencing mutually in the course of history. Nowruz is one of the oldest culturally developed ceremonies with no elements of religiosity. It has been celebrated for at least 3000 years ago, when the Abrahamic regions were not known. The occasion focuses on the principles of earthy life, encouraging creativity, self-determination, collective responsibility, cooperative work, and collective happiness.
Prehistorical Reminder
Hypothetically, Nowruz is a reminder of the last ice age, ca 18 thousand years ago, when icy weather was at its end and spring was expected to give warmth and life again. This may be a reason that Nowruz is perceived as a timely day of celebration after the winter, as opposed to other religious holidays, Nowruz encourages intercultural dialogue and reciprocal ties among all ancient Persians for the purpose of peace, reconciliation, and happiness.
Nowruz and Persian Culture
The ancient Persians thought there is a long-lasting fight between the Good (light) and Evil (darkness) that ends with the victory of Good over Evil. Nowruz is an occasion to fulfil the culmination of the Good, in a platonic sense against the Bad / Evil. The aim is to be collectively winner in this struggle.
Festivities belonging to Nowruz
Nowruz is preceded by a festival day called Chahrshanbeh Suri, the last Wednesday before Nowruz. People celebrate in the evening by jumping over bonfires symbolising the retention of light during times of obscurity. Nowruz is followed by ”Sizdahbedar”, which means the thirteenth day after Nowruz. People typically celebrate this day outdoors, surrounded by greenery, usually in the countryside or parks. The idea is to get through the thirteenth day of the New Year, because the number 13 is considered unlucky, and start the New Year with wishes for good luck.
Gifts of Nowruz
Nowruz is a day of great joy for children who are the first to enjoy Nowruz by receiving affection and gifts, “Eidi”, from parents and relatives. Families gather together eating food, fruit, pistachio, and nut mix. Friends and relatives visit each other throughout the day. Nowruz is a day of forgetting animosities while visiting one other.
Nowruz under the Islamic Regime
Nowruz is derived from a time of pre-Islam. It does not fit into the Islamic categories of rituals and thus conceived as non-Islamic. When Islam invaded Iran in the 7th.century, all pre-Islamic culture and ceremonies were considered “non-Islamic,” and thus diabolised or hardly tolerated by the Muslim invaders. Under the long domination of Islam, Iranians celebrate Nowruz through all the centuries in private groups. Iranians found a compromise between Islam and Nowruz by adding the Koran to their Haft Sin, which is a set of 7 items on a table starting with the Persian letter “S” — although the Koran dose not start with “S” in Persian language.
New Year in Islam
Mullahs would preach to tarnish Nowruz as a non-Islamic ceremony. Furthermore, Nowruz does not fit into the Islamic lunar calendar — the Islamic lunar calendar with 354 days (vs. 365 days of in the solar calendar), follows the Islamic day of Pilgrimage and the Day of Sacrifice. It recalls the day when Abraham intended to follow the instructions of God by sacrificing his son Ishmael. The Islamic version of “Nowruz” therefore happens in different seasons and is celebrated with Islamic rituals, including animal sacrifice. These oppose to the philosophy of Nowruz, which is an expression of mercy and love for the environment and the natural renewal in spring.
Islamising Nowruz
Regarding the Iranians’ nostalgia to their pre-Islamic Great Persia, the Islamic regime had to tactically step back by tolerating Nowruz. However, the apologists of Islam and the regime attempt to attribute to Nowruz an Islamic cover-up. Ali Shari’ati, an Iranian Islamic scholar, had already developed the myth that Imam Ali, the fourth Islamic Caliph and the first Shiite Imam, was pointed by the Prophet Muhammad as his successor and Caliph on this day – Qadir Day. The Qadir Day is a Shiite feast under the Islamic regime. The controversy exists among scholars regarding the different calendars and thus this coincidence is not even accepted by each Mullah. Furthermore, dance and musical celebration of Nowruz is not allowed in Islam.
Nowruz Reborn as a New Symbol
Nowruz symbolises after all today a cultural struggle against the totalitarian Islamic regime. The ceremony of Nowruz is a source of controversy has today a political dimension rejecting the Islamic culture while admiring the ancient culture of Iran. In this weigh, Nowruz carries a connotation of resistance of Iranian people against the supremacy of Islam and the authorities of the Islamic regime; in fact Nowruz is reborn as a symbol of national resistance. It is an occasion that most Iranians discreetly congratulate each other for a springtime of freedom alluding to an Iran without the anti-Iranian Islamic regime.
By Jahanshah Rashidian
ارگان رسمی حزب سوسیال دموکرات و لائیک ایران
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