Mid-March, 2022: Iran’s capital city Tehran brims with energy. The night air swells with talk and laughter. The occasional firecracker momentarily breaks the hum. Celebrations for Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, have begun.

Falling annually on the spring equinox (around March 21 on the Gregorian calendar), Nowruz both welcomes the new season and marks the beginning of Farvardin: the first month of the Solar Hijri calendar, adopted officially in Iran and Afghanistan. With roots in the Zoroastrian religion, Nowruz today is celebrated worldwide by numerous ethnolinguistic communities, yet its survival into the modern era is credited to its extensive influence on Iranian customs and history, producing a “cultural memory” that has fused Nowruz securely to the Iranian national identity.

Nowruz’s significance in Iran has fluctuated throughout the years, and its accompanying festivities have had ever-changing political, sectarian, and social implications. Speaking with Boston University’s School of Global Studies Professor Houchang Chehabi, “Today, Nowruz is much like Thanksgiving in America,” he explains, “it's a family-oriented occasion.”

Customs and Festivities

In Iran, celebrations for Nowruz kick off on the last Tuesday before the vernal equinox. Festivities include jumping over a bonfire, while chanting requests for the release of one’s sickness and “paleness” in exchange for the fire’s rejuvenation and “redness.” Boston University student Jasmin Tagijeva describes a similar Nowruz custom from her home country Azerbaijan: “the fire-jumping serves as a spiritual rebirth with the coming of spring,” she reveals. Tracing back to Zoroastrianism and pre-Islamic Iran, such fire-honoring rituals have been vulnerable to political disapproval and attempted extermination, particularly in the wake of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. “The government tried to ban this custom,” Chehabi recounts, “but people went ahead with it anyway…in fact, with more vigor than before. Nowadays, Iranians even set off firecrackers as an act of resistance.”

A second Nowruz staple is the haft-seen, an assortment of seven or more culturally symbolic items whose Persian names all start with the letter "س" (pronounced "seen"). Upon a sofra (or dining cloth), households arrange sabzeh (wheat sprouts), samanu (pudding), serkeh (vinegar), and more, in a festive display. The haft-seen also provides the opportunity for celebrants to tailor their ceremonies to specific cultural and sectarian leanings. “People also display a chosen book,” Professor Chehabi describes, “often a religious text, such as the Quran, Torah, or the Zoroastrian Avesta.” Chehabi further explains how Nowruz’s secular participants may honor the epic poetry of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh or Hafiz’s lyrics, both considered pinnacles of Persian literature by many Iranians. Jasmin recounts how in Azerbaijan, one might find the works of Mahammad bin Suleyman (better known as Fuzuli) displayed in a similar fashion.

At the exact arrival of the Iranian new year, calculated astronomically, it is customary to set the tone for a prosperous year by placing a sweet item of food in one’s mouth. For the next 12 days, gift-giving and family visits follow. On the 13th day (sizdah bedar, or “Nature’s Day”), Iranians celebrate outdoors in parks, gardens, and near streams. But if you’re an Iranian resident of California, which houses more than 40 percent of the nearly half-million people of Iranian descent living in the U.S., you might visit the beach in the company of loved ones. Across the diaspora, Nature’s Day activities include chess and card playing, music, and elaborate feasts.

Historical Significance

Although Nowruz is celebrated in the modern era as a secular occasion, its origins in Zoroastrianism have subjected it to scrutiny and modification in post-Islamic Iran. In the 11th century, Iran adopted the Jalali variant of the Solar Hijri calendar, in which Iranian mathematician, astronomer, and poet Omar Khayyam designated “year zero” to the Hijrah of Prophet Mohammad (the migration of the Islamic prophet and his followers from Mecca to Medina). In doing so, the Iranian calendar facilitated the synthesis of ancient Iranian tradition (in the form of the Nowruz New Year) with broader Islamic values.

“There is a cultural legitimacy that comes with creating a calendar to accompany a religion or an ideology,” Professor Chehabi notes, “and a political legitimacy that came with solidifying Nowruz as an Islamic tradition.” (Consider the French Republican Calendar, adopted during the revolution, and designed in large part to remove all religious and royalist influences from the French calendar.) In Iran, the desire to affirm Nowruz’s Islamic significance also triggered what Chehabi calls “the retroactive dating of significant cultural events.” “Important events happen in world history on dates that we do not know,” he explains, “no one knows when the Prophet Mohammad designated his successor, so attributing that event, among others, to Nowruz legitimized it in the eyes of Muslims.”

Regional Variations

For Iran and Afghanistan (the two states which utilize variants of the Solar Hijri calendar today), the year 1401 began on the Gregorian calendar’s March 20th, 2022. Jasmin, on the other hand, makes it a point to emphasize that in Azerbaijan, Nowruz merely honors the arrival of spring. Such is the case for the majority of the Central Asian and Caucasus states that currently celebrate Nowruz (i.e., the region once part of the ancient Persian empire). “It is important to explore how Nowruz is celebrated outside of Iran,” Jasmin maintains, “it’s often seen as a very Persian celebration, but comparing local traditions is so interesting.”

In Azerbaijan, Nowruz has been designated a national holiday. “On each of the four Tuesday nights before Nowruz,” Jasmin tells me, “we celebrate a specific element: water, fire, wind, and earth.” Festivities vary, but like Iranians, Azerbaijanis will take time off work/school to visit loved ones: “I get calls from relatives I didn't even know I had,” Jasmin reflects fondly, “and at family gatherings, we play a fun game where two people take one hand-painted egg each and hit them against each other…whoever’s egg breaks first loses.” (She made it a point to assure me that no eggs are wasted during this activity.) On Nowruz, Azerbaijanis also look forward to observing freestyle wrestling, the country’s national sport, and treasured cultural feature.

Among the Kurdish people as well, Nowruz is a much-anticipated and valued tradition. In Turkey, however, the event has sparked controversy thanks to the absence of the letter “W” from the Turkish alphabet. In the face of Turkish law banning political parties from using any language other than Turkish, “Nevruz” has become the official spelling in Turkey, which, as Professor Chehabi reveals, has transformed the letter “W” into a “sign of protest” among Kurds. Similarly, after the Taliban canceled this year’s official Nowruz festivities in Afghanistan, the celebration has become a symbol of resistance and comfort against the country’s hostile political climate.

Today, Nowruz symbolizes history, community, and rejuvenation among those who celebrate it. While its significance to the Iranian national identity cannot be overstated, Nowruz remains socially, culturally, and politically significant across Southwest and Central Asia, where a diverse array of local expressions enhance its richness.

The author would like to sincerely thank Professor Houchang Chehabi and Jasmin Tagijeva for their participation in the research and writing of this article.

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