This year...

I am going to start early with the Now Ruz preparations! As a bonus of being a rather culturally mixed family, we get more celebrations than most people! I need to get the Sabzeh started and will be putting some lentils in water to make them sprout. I always tend to do this too late and they don't look right, so maybe this year? Now Ruz this year is on 20 March at 5.32pm (UK time). I'll write more about Now Ruz as we approach it, but here is a little explanation so you understand what I need the sprouting lentils for:

Now Ruz, new day or New Year as the Iranians call it, is a celebration of spring Equinox. It is the most cherished of all the Iranian festivals and is celebrated by all. This occasion has been renowned in one form or another by all the major cultures of ancient Mesopotamia. What we have today as Now Ruz with its' uniquely Iranian characteristics has been celebrated for at least 3000 years and is deeply rooted in the rituals and traditions of Zoroastrian belief system of the Sassanian period.

A few days prior to Now Ruz, a special ceremonial table is laid out with seven dishes - each one beginning with the Persian letter Sinn, thereof the name Haft Sinn. The number seven ("haft") has been sacred in Iran since the ancient times, and the seven dishes stand for the seven angelic heralds of life-rebirth, health, happiness, prosperity, joy, patience, and beauty.

The symbolic dishes consist of:

1. Sabzeh or sprouts, usually wheat or lentil representing rebirth.

2. Samanu is a pudding in which common wheat sprouts are transformed and given new life as a sweet, creamy pudding.

3. Seeb means apple and represents health and beauty.

4. Senjed the sweet, dry fruit of the Lotus tree, represents love.

5. Seer which is garlic in Persian, represents medicine.

6. Somaq sumac berries, represent the color of sunrise; with the appearance of the sun God conquers Evil.

7. Serkeh or vinegar, represents age and patience.

To reconfirm all hopes and wishes expressed by the traditional foods, other elements and symbols are also on the sofreh:

• a few coins represent prosperity and wealth;

• a basket of painted eggs represents fertility;

• a Seville orange floating in a bowl of water represents the earth floating in space;

• a goldfish in a bowl represents life and the end of astral year-picas;

• a flask of rose water known for its magical cleansing power,

• Some would put a brazier for burning wild rue ,a sacred herb whose smoldering fumes ward off evil spirits;

• A pot of flowering hyacinth or narcissus is also set on the sofreh

• A mirror which represents the images and reflections of Creation

• On the side of the mirror are candlesticks holding a flickering candle for each child in the family. The candles represent enlightenment and happiness.