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Fereydoun's Favorite Holiday in March
The Persian New Year: Nowruz
Most holidays are based on something in a religion. The Persian New Year is not based on any religious calendar. It begins on March 20 which is the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere, or the first day of fall in the southern hemisphere.
The kick off to the New Year is the Eve of the Red Wednesday or the Fire Wednesday. On that night—which is actually, the night before the last Wednesday of the year, there are bonfires everywhere.
Children jump over the fire chanting:
My pale on your peak! 
Your red on my cheek.
With that, they hope the coming year to turn their pale and unhappy cheeks to the happy, red cheeks.
If you fly to Iran on this evening, you would think the whole country is on fire.
I said there is one difference between the Persian New Year and others, but the similarities are so many.
These pictures show the items you will see in a Persian's house during the New Year.
See if you find them in other New Year ceremonies:
1-Spring Cleaning: the Persians insist on cleanliness, so a few days before the New Year, they start cleaning up everything in the house which means "clean everything in sight or out of sight."
2- A man with a red suit, singing and dancing in the streets. In Iran this jolly black fellow is called: Haji Firooz.
3- Something green and lively from the nature: A plate of green sprouts of lentils, wheat or other seeds, which they have soaked in water a coupe of weeks earlier.
4-Candles, or lightbulbs that look like candles.
5- Cookies, pastries, and candies of all sorts
6- Children running around the house with their new clothes
7- Gifts or new shiny coins-- or crisp paper money
8- The count down, usually with a man's voice(!) which is also a universal thing--and beats me too!
9- Fire works or 21 gun salutes to the New Year.
This year the Noruz 1385 begins at 9:55:35 P.M. in Tehran, which is 1:25:35 P.M. New York time on Monday, March 20, 2006--Are you with me? If you want a surprise, you have to watch the fish in the fishbowl at that very second to get your surprise.
At that exact moment, you can hear the tick tock of the clocks all over the country. Then a couple of strange things happen that you may not find in other holidays. A series of very fortunate events:
At this very moment, the gold fish in the fishbowl will flip, and if you are not watching closely, or your eyes are fixed on the sweets, you will miss this exciting moment.
Another fortunate event is to see the colored egg they have placed on a mirror. It will wiggle and giggle.
My dear boys and girls: Keep in mind that this happens only once a year. So we can not be playing around the table and see these amazing things too. My grandma, Mamma Zinat, gave me an advice that I would like to pass it on to you:
"Watch the egg or the fish!" Not both at the same time. Then, you will see with your own eyes what I am talking about.
If you have a brother or a sister, one of you should watch the egg, and the other should watch the fish.
Don't try to watch one of them with the right eye and the other with the left eye. You may miss the whole thing and then you have to wait until the next year, when perhaps you can stay focused for a longer time.
If you have your grandparents around, they can help you keep things under control too. They know about this special moment.
 You may say, "How about my parents?"
Well, I am sorry to say that parents are so busy these days that, if the fish flipped to the edge of the fishbowl and performed a triple axel like Arakawa on the edge of the bowl, before flying off for a summersault. And if the egg stood on its narrow tip and hatched--standing up..., and then jumpped on the windowsill and began to dance like Hillary Duff or sing like Leila Forouhar, your father would not believe a word of what you are saying.
He would just smile and say: "You've lost your breaks!" --which means, you must be tripping your old man! And your mom will say, "Ghorboon'e cheshashye khosh-gelet ke albaloo-gilas michin'e!" which means, "Your eyes are lovely ,but you're mixing cherries with berries."
Give it a try this year and let me know what you see! Write to Fereydoun if you see what you saw. Click on Ideas: Holidays--and let's see what you think!
To see Fereydoun's book, click here. If you want to watch a video about Fereydoun and Humpty Dumpty Sat on the Globe, Click and watch a 25 minute interview.
But the Persian New Year goes on for two weeks. Read the April's Calandar to see what they call Sizdeh Bedar, otherwise known as April's Fool.
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