سال جدید در راه است و این اولین باری است که این روز را خارج از ایران و دور از خانواده هایمان جشن می گیریم، البته میهمان دانشجویان و دوستان ایرانی مقیم شهر Gainesville – Florida هستیم و بسیار خوشحال که می توانیم در جمع صمیمی و دوستانه این عزیزان به استقبال سال جدید برویم.
متن زیر از سایت ویکیپدیا برای معرفی نوروز انتخاب شده تا بتوانیم هرچه بیشتر و بهتر فرهنگ کهن و دیرینه ایران زمین را به سایرین معرفی کنیم. تصویر بالا نیز، عکس شکوفه آخرین درخت کاشته شده در شهر Gainesville (سی و دومین درخت)، از پروژه دوچرخه سواری دور دنیا برای صلح و حفظ طبیعت می باشد.
نام "بهار" برای این درخت انتخاب شد و آنرا تقدیم می کنیم به همه طبیعت دوستان عزیز.(در چند روز آینده گزارش کاملی از سفر در سایت درج خواهد شد)
Friends and travel mates, greetings to you all
At the moment we are in Gainesville and Iranian students at university of Florida are hosting us, so we are lucky to be with our nice friends to celebrate Nowruz, which is Iranian traditional new year.
The countdown for spring has already started and we are right around the corner from beginning of the spring which is pleasant change of season. Nowruz marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the Iranian calendar. This is our tradition to get together for the Nowruz celebration, but this time is really different. We are thousands of miles far from Iran, our Parents, family and our friends who we have missed them much.
The picture on the top is the last peace tree we planted, which we named spring. We would like to present our 32nd peace tree to our parents, our family and all of our dear friends in all over the world. We wish you happy New Year. Thank you for being our friend and all of our new and other future friends.
Here is some information about Nowruz in Wikipedia
Nowrūz is the traditional Iranian new year holiday celebrated by various Iranian and Turkic people in Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Albania, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan, India, Northwestern China, the Crimea, and the Balkans.
Nowruz marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the Iranian calendar. It is celebrated on the day of the astronomical vernal equinox (start of spring in northern hemisphere), which usually occurs on the March 21st or the previous/following day depending on where it is observed.
In Iran Nowruz is referred to as an Eid festival, although it is not an Islamic feast. The word comes from Old Persian: nava = new + rəzaŋh = day/daylight, meaning "new day/daylight", and has the same meaning in Kurdish (naw = new + roz = day; meaning "new day") and New Persian (now/naw = new + rūz = day; meaning "new day").
The term Nooroz first appeared in Persian records in the second century AD, but it was also an important day during the time of the Achaemenids (c. 648-330 BC), where kings from different nations under the Persian empire used to bring gifts to the emperor (Shahanshah) of Persia on Nowruz.
Local variationsNowruz has been celebrated for at least 3000 years and is deeply rooted in the rituals and traditions of the Zoroastrian religion. Today, the festival of Nowruz is celebrated in many countries that were territories of, or influenced by, the Persian Empire: Persia (Iran), Iraq, Afghanistan, parts of the Middle East, as well as in the former Soviet republics of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan,Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. It is also celebrated by the Zoroastrian Parsis in India and Pakistan as well by certain Iranic inhabitants in Pakistan's Chitral region. It is also celebrated by the Iranian immigrants from Shiraz in Zanzibar.[2] In Turkey, it is called Nevruz in Turkish, Sultan Nevruz in Albanian and Newroz in Kurdish. In some remote communities located in parts of western Iran, the holiday is referred to as Nuroj, which literally means New Day in the Kurdish language.
In Iran, the greeting that accompanies the festival is Eydetoon Mobārak (mubarak: felicitations) in Persian. In Turkey, the greeting is either Bayramınız Mubarek/kutlu olsun (in Turkish (the same greeting applies for other festivals as well)), although the holiday was banned in Turkey until 1995 since it was largely associated with Kurds.[3] In the Kurdistan region, the greeting Cejna we pîroz be/Newroz pîroz be accompanies the festival.
Khane TekaniPersians, Afghans and other groups start preparing for the Nowruz with a major spring-cleaning of their houses, the purchase of new clothes to wear for the new year and the purchase of flowers (in particular the hyacinth and the tulip are popular and conspicuous).
In association with the "rebirth of nature", extensive spring-cleaning is a national tradition observed by almost every household in Persia. 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. On the thirteenth day families leave their homes and picnic outdoors.
During the Nowruz holidays people are expected to visit one another (mostly limited to families, friends and neighbours) in the form of short house visits, which are usually reciprocated. Typically, on the first day of Nowruz, family members gather around the table, with the Haft Seen on the table or set next to it, and await the exact moment of the arrival of the spring. At that time gifts are exchanged. Later in the day, the first house visits are paid to the most senior family members. Typically, the youth will visit the elders first, and the elders return their visit later. The visits naturally have to be relatively short, otherwise one will not be able to visit everybody on their list. A typical visit is around 30 minutes, where you often run into other visiting relatives and friends who happen to be paying a visit to the same house at that time. Because of the house visits, you make sure you have a sufficient supply of pastry, cookies, fresh and dried fruits and special nuts on hand, as you typically serve your visitors with these items with tea or sherbet. Many Iranians will throw large Nowruz parties in a central location as a way of dealing with the long distances between groups of friends and family.
Some Nowruz celebrants believe that whatever a person does on Nowruz will affect the rest of the year. So, if a person is warm and kind to their relatives, friends and neighbours on Nowruz, then the new year will be a good one. On the other hand, if there are fights and disagreements, the year will be a bad one.
One tradition that may not be very widespread (that is, it may belong to only a few families) is to place something sweet, such as honey or candy, in a safe place outside overnight. On the first morning of the new year, the first person up brings the sweet stuff into the house as another means of attaining a good new year.
Chahārshanbe SūrīChehel Sotoun's Wall painting, that dates back to the Safavid era, depicts a Chaharshanbe Suri celebration.
The night before the last Wednesday of the year is celebrated by the Iranian people.This festival is the celebration of the light (the good) winning over the darkness (the bad); the symbolism behind the rituals are all rooted back to Zoroastrianism.
The tradition includes people going into the streets and alleys to make bonfires, and jump over them while singing the traditional song Zardî-ye man az to, sorkhî-ye to az man (literally: "My yellowness for you, your redness for me; ", but figuratively: My paleness (pain, sickness) for you (the fire), your strength (health) for me.
Serving different kinds of pastry and nuts known as Ajīl is the Chahārshanbe Sūrī way of giving thanks for the previous year's health and happiness, while exchanging any remaining paleness and evil for the warmth and vibrancy of the fire.
According to tradition, the living are visited by the spirit of their ancestors on the last days of the year, and many children wrap themselves in shrouds, symbolically re-enacting the visits. They also run through the streets banging on pots and pans with spoons and knocking on doors to ask for treats. The ritual is called qashogh-zany (spoon beating) and symbolizes the beating out of the last unlucky Wednesday of the year.
There are also several other traditions on this night, including the rituals of Kūze Shekastan, the breaking of earthen jars which symbolically hold ones bad fortune; the ritual of Fal-Gûsh, or inferring one's future from the conversations of those passing by; and the ritual of Gereh-goshā’ī, making a knot in the corner of a handkerchief or garment and asking the first passerby to unravel it in order to remove ones misfortune.
The Haft SīnHaft Sîn or the seven 'S's is a major tradition of Nowruz. The haft sin table includes seven items specific starting with the letter S or Sīn in Persian alphabet). The items symbolically correspond to seven creations and holy immortals protecting them. Originally called Haft Chin [citation needed], the Haft Sin has evolved over time, but has kept its symbolism. Traditionally, families attempt to set as beautiful a Haft Sīn table as they can, as it is not only of traditional and spiritual value, but also noticed by visitors during Nowruzi visitations and is a reflection of their good taste.
The Haft Sin items are:
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sabzeh - wheat, barley or lentil sprouts growing in a dish - symbolizing rebirth
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samanu - a sweet pudding made from wheat germ - symbolizing affluence
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senjed - the dried fruit of the oleaster tree - symbolizing love
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sīr - garlic - symbolizing medicine
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sīb - apples - symbolizing beauty and health
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somaq - sumac berries - symbolizing (the color of) sunrise
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serkeh - vinegar - symbolizing age and patience
Other items on the table may include:
• Sonbol - Hyacinth (flower)
• Sekkeh - Coins - representative of wealth
• traditional Iranian pastries such as baghlava, toot, naan-nokhodchi
• dried nuts, berries and raisins (Aajeel)
• lit candles (enlightenment and happiness)
• a mirror (symbolizing cleanness and honesty)
• decorated eggs, sometimes one for each member of the family (fertility)
• a bowl of water with goldfish (life within life, and the sign of Pisces which the sun is leaving)
• a bowl of water with an orange in it (the earth floating in space)
• rose water for its magical cleansing powers
• the national colours, for a patriotic touch
• a holy book (e.g., the Qur'an, Avesta, Bible, Torah, or Kitáb-i-Aqdas,) and/or a poetry book (almost always either the Shahnama or the Divan of Hafez)
Haji firouzThe traditional herald of the Nowruz season is called Hājjī Fīrūz (or Khwāja Pīrūz). He symbolizes the rebirth of the Sumerian god of sacrifice, Domuzi, who was killed at the end of each year and reborn at the beginning of the New Year.
He usually uses face paint to make his skin black and wears a red costume. Then he sings and dances through the streets with tambourines and trumpets spreading good cheer and heralds the coming of the New Year. Mehrdad Bahar, iranologist, suggests in his book that this borrowing of the Domuzi/Tammuz tradition from the ancient non-Iranian civilizations in Mesopotamia happened with the arrival of the Iranian tribes to the western parts of the Iranian Plateau at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. This borrowing may according to Bahar be true for the whole Nowruz tradition itself as Indo-Iranian tribes before that did not have this tradition while the civilizations of Mesopotamia did. This later spread to all areas where Iranian culture was present but was lost by the non-Iranian cultures of Mesopotamia.
New Year Dishes•
Sabzi Polo Mahi: The New Year's day traditional meal is called Sabzi Polo Mahi, which is rice with green herbs served with fish. The traditional seasoning for Sabzi Polo are parsley, coriander, chives, dill and fenugreek.
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Reshteh Polo: rice cooked with noodles which is said to symbolically help one succeed in life.
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Dolme Barg : A traditional dish of Azeri people, cooked just before the new year. It includes some vegetables, meat and cotyledon which have been cooked and embedded in vine leaf and cooked again. It is considered useful in reaching to wishes.
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Kookoo sabzi : Herbs and vegetable souffle, traditionally served for dinner at New Year. A light and fluffy omelet style made from parsley, dill, coriander, spinach, spring onion ends, and chives, mixed with eggs and walnut.
Sizdah BedarThe thirteenth day of the new year festival is Sizdah Bedar (literally meaning "thirteen to out", figuratively meaning "hit the outdoors on the thirteenth"). This is a day of festivity in the open, often accompanied by music and dancing, usually at family picnics.
Sizdah bedar celebrations stem from the ancient Persians' belief that the twelve constellations in the Zodiac controlled the months of the year, and each ruled the earth for a thousand years at the end of which the sky and earth collapsed in chaos. Hence Nowruz lasts twelve days and the thirteenth day represents the time of chaos when families put order aside and avoid the bad luck associated with the number thirteen by going outdoors and having picnics and parties.
At the end of the celebrations on this day, the sabzeh grown for the Haft Seen (which has symbolically collected all sickness and bad luck) is thrown into running water to exorcise the demons (divs) from the household. It is also customary for young single women to tie the leaves of the sabzeh before discarding it, so expressing a wish to be married before the next year's Sizdah Bedar. Another tradition associated with this day is Dorugh-e Sizdah, literally meaning "the lie of the thirteenth", which is the process of lying to someone and making them believe it
