Persian New Year

Persian New Year is called Nowruz, which means ‘new day’. It starts on 21st March at the spring equinox, which is the time which is the time when the day is as long as the night in spring. People in different countries celebrate Nowruz. These include Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan and a few other countries. The Nowruz holidays are usually 13 days long. During this period, people visit their family and friends and travel.

On the first day of Nowruz, families gather around a table with seven foods or objects that start with the sound ‘s’ in the Persian language. It’s called the Haft-sin table, which means the table of seven S’s. Every year, the exact time of the new year changes by approximately 8 hours. When the new year arrives, people celebrate by praying for a good new year, and then they leave their homes to visit older relatives as a sign of respect for them. The visits usually start with parents and then extend to uncles and aunts and finally cousins.

On the thirteenth day of Nowruz, families go out and have picnics in nature. Some believe that this forces bad luck out of their homes and brings good luck in the new year.