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Tajiks consider Nowruz as their biggest Celebration of the year. In Tajikistan, Nowruz is celebrated and observed for five days. Tajikistanis from all ethnic backgrounds celebrate Nowruz with the same enthusiasm and sense of belonging.
Qom, along with the shrine were raided in 1221 by the Mongols and again by the Tamerlane. In 1519 the dome of the shrine was rebuilt and the courtyard was embellished in honour of the Safavid king, Shah Ismail I.
Nowruz is a time for great joy and celeberations shared by people of all faiths and ethnicity in many regions inside and outside Iran, and its registered on the UNESCO list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
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Copyright © 2013 Persian New Year 2011 – 1390 Norooz, Nowruz, Norouz, نوروز - All Rights Reserved |
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The thirteenth day of the new year festival is Sizdah Bedar (literally meaning “passing the thirteenth day”, figuratively meaning “Passing the bad luck of the thirteenth day”). This is a day of festivity in the open, often accompanied by music and dancing, usually at family picnics.
Since very ancient times, it is said, the Arous Gol ceremony has been held around Gilan and Mazandaran, two Caspian Sea provinces of Iran. The ceremony is part of festivities just before 21 March and a reminder of the arrival of spring.
Qom is the second most sacred city in Iran after Mashhad. Much of the shrine complex was first built by Shah Abbas I in the early 17th century.
Chaharshanbe Suri, also called the Festival of Fire, literally meaning Wednesday Feast is an ancient Iranian festival dating back to at least 1700 BCE. it is a prelude to Nowruz, which marks the arrival of spring.
Haft-Sin arrangements for the 2011 Persian New Year celebrations. This collection is custom handmade & detailed by Shahrzad and Fereshteh.
Karvansray Khanat, Tehran 2011
Spring cleaning, or Khouneh Tekouni (literally means ’shaking the house’) or ‘complete cleaning of the house’ is commonly performed before Nowruz. Persians (Iranians, Afghans and Tajiks) and other Indo-Iranian groups (Kurds, Armenians, Azarbaijanis and Balochs) start preparing for the Nowruz with a major spring-cleaning of their houses, and carpet cleaning has become a new year ritual.
In association with the “rebirth of nature”, extensive spring-cleaning is a national tradition observed by almost every household in Iran. This is also extended to personal attire, and it is customary to buy at least one set of new clothes. On the New Year’s Day, families dress in their new clothes and start the twelve-day celebrations by visiting the elders of their family, then the rest of their family and finally their friends.
- Wish that Nowruz brings the blessings of happiness, prosperity and love.
Nowruz with different spelling shows up in official calendars of Iran, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Albania, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Autonomous Region of Kurdistan (part of Iraq) and Georgia.
Nowruz marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the Iranian year. It is celebrated on the day of the astronomical vernal equinox (the start of spring in the northern hemisphere), which usually occurs either on March 20 on March 21.