A Time for Renewal, Reflection, and Joyful Gatherings
Spring and all its flowers
now joyously break their vow of silence.
It is time for celebration, not for lying low;
You too — weed out those roots of sadness from your heart.
- Hafez
An almond orchard in a village just outside of Nili in Daikundi province, Afghanistan. Photo Credit: Kiana Hayeri
Today marks the first day of the Persian New Year and the arrival of spring. Nowruz, meaning “new day” in Dari, heralds a season of new beginnings. It’s a festival laden with symbolism and rooted in cultural tradition that stretches back more than 3,000 years.
For many who celebrate, Nowruz is a time for reflection and renewal. A communal pause to look forward and anticipate the season ahead. With the arrival of spring comes rejuvenation, hope, and a potent reminder of the eternal cycle of life.
The first step of preparation is an intentional spring cleaning, a tradition known as khoone takoone in Persian, which literally means "shaking the house." This ritual represents a physical and mental readying that sets the tone for the upcoming year. To welcome the freshness and renewal, the home will be scrubbed from top to bottom, a cleansing of one’s outer world that mirrors the revitalization of one’s inner world.
The setting of the sofra, or tablecloth, with haft sin comes next. Haft sin is a symbolic arrangement of seven items that are displayed in the home. While there are varying aesthetic choices, the core elements include sabzeh (wheatgrass), samanu (germinated wheat pudding), senjed (dried lotus fruit), seeb (apples), seer (garlic), serkeh (vinegar), and somaq (sumac). Each object symbolizes a virtue or concept the household hopes to embody in the new year.
At the heart of this celebration is the importance of coming together. Nowruz embodies the value of familial and communal bonds, as well as the enduring resilience and optimism that define the human spirit.
We spoke with Kiana Hayeri, an Iranian-Canadian photographer and friend of Artijaan, about her favorite Nowruz memories, and how this celebration holds deep significance in her life.
Hundreds of women dressed in their best outfits wearing makeup, watch Nowruz celebrations in remote village of Nalij in the Miramoor district of Daikundi. On the first day of Spring, residents of Nalij village host a massive celebrations that attract thousands of people from neighboring villages and districts. Photo Credit: Kiana Hayeri
How do you typically prepare for Nowruz? Are there any special rituals or customs you follow?
My family is not religious so we never put the Qur’an on the sofra, we put Hafez instead. We always had that book of poetry which served as our holy book. That was very special to our family.
After the year would turn, my father would open the book for Fal e Hafez, where you ask a big question, make a wish, or ask for a solution to something. You speak to Hafez and open his poems and he answers. The last two lines were always so right in the context of the wish or question, and I never know how that works. To this day, I have no idea what the magic of that book is.
In what ways does Nowruz contribute to a sense of cultural identity or connection within your community?
I've gone through different phases in my life. There were times that I was close to my culture and there were times when I was a teenager when I had just arrived in Canada that I didn't connect with my culture. Sometimes I would stay in Iran for a while, and when I couldn't go to Iran, Afghanistan filled in that gap of culture.
My partner recently pointed out that I've been cut off from Iranian friends and life there. I haven’t been back to Iran for a year and a half, and it makes me very sad and nostalgic. For the first time in a long time, I'm allowing myself to have this craving for Iranian culture.
A pot of Haft Mewa, a concoction of seven different types of fruits and nuts, steeped in water for two days. The result is a refreshing, sugary treat, the sweetness symbolizing the anticipation of an auspicious new year. Photo Credit: Kiana Hayeri
Do you have any fond memories of Nowruz from years past?
The joy of receiving gifts has disappeared for me as I've gotten older, but as a kid, it was the most exciting thing. My family always put a little bit of cash in the Hafez book of poetry and after the new year, my parents would open it and we would take the money excitedly and share kisses and hugs. Also, in my generation, you would buy one dress and just one dress. I remember one year I vomited on that dress before Nowruz. I was so angry and upset, but my mom washed it and made sure it was dry by the time the new year turned.
How do you plan to celebrate Nowruz this year?
It's been three years that I haven’t been able to celebrate Nowruz the way I’d like. So this year, specifically, I realized I want to be somewhere that I feel welcome, that I feel connected with. This year we're going to Berlin to celebrate with a childhood friend of mine who's also very big on Nowruz.
The year will turn around 4 am so we’re going to my friend's place the night before to set up a fire to jump over and eat fish with herbs and rice. We’ll probably dance until the morning, talk and just celebrate together. We’re all away from our families so it will be very emotional for us.
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Kiana Hayeri is an Iranian-Canadian visual storyteller. Her work delves into the complexities of migration, adolescence, identity, and sexuality within conflict-ridden societies. She is a Senior TED Fellow and National Geographic Explorer, and frequent contributor to The New York Times and National Geographic. Kiana has won several prestigious awards and grants for her work documenting the lives of Afghan women, including The Hal Boyle Award in 2022 for “The Collapse of Afghanistan, which was also shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting. Her prints are available for purchase on our website.
To learn more about Nowruz and the various customs observed during this celebration, we invite you to read our previous story.
