Nowruz 2023: Know History & Significance Of The Parsi New Year

New Delhi: Nowruz is a festival celebrated by Parsis all across the globe. It also marks the beginning of the spring season. Navroz is usually celebrated on March 20 or March 21 during the Spring Equinox.

Navroz History and Significance

Navroz or Nowruz came from the name of the Persian king, Jamshed. According to a legend, the king saved the world from an apocalypse which was supposed to kill everyone. However, in the kingdom of King Jamshed, there was no excessive heat or cold and no one died, instead, everyone lived happily.

It is believed that the festival started being celebrated in India during the 18th century when a tradesman from Surat, Nusservanji Kohyaji who travelled to Iran often started celebrating the festival in India.

For Iranians, Nowruz is not only a new year celebration but also a celebration of spring. “It is just a beautiful time of year, with flowers blooming everywhere,” says Nasrin Karimi, who moved to Chennai from Iran in 1980. “The onset of spring looks and smells lovely, and that is how the feast at Nowruz is as well,” notes the Iranian whose restaurant Shiraz Art Cafe, in Chennai, serves authentic Persian food. This week, she is cooking Nowruz lunches and dinners, featuring ghormeh sabzi, berry chicken and plum chicken at the Westin in Chennai.

The celebration of Nowruz includes several rituals, such as a deep spring cleaning, small bonfires, and a grand decorative altar called haft-seen, which features seven symbolic objects, each beginning with the letter “S” in Farsi. These objects include sprouted wheatgrass ( sabzeh), oleaster or wild olive ( senjed), an apple ( seeb), a pudding made of germinated wheat (samanu), the spice sumac ( somagh), vinegar ( serkeh), and garlic ( seer).

On this day, people dress up in their traditional clothes and decorate their homes and cook elaborate meals. People come together to celebrate the festival and they also visit the Fire Temple. They also make fruits, sandalwood, milk and others as offerings to the fire.