{"id":7615,"date":"2022-03-21T07:53:11","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T05:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/?p=7615"},"modified":"2022-12-17T11:03:42","modified_gmt":"2022-12-17T09:03:42","slug":"nowruz-and-the-sins-of-the-new-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/nowruz-and-the-sins-of-the-new-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Nowruz and The Sins of the New Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A traditional Persian Zoroastrian haft-sin for Nowruz (photo courtesy SurfIran<\/a>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n


\nToday\u2019s impossible prompt: a poem about spring celebrations and peace.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/h4>\n

\nMaha Tourbah<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sunday, March 20th, marked the beginning of the Spring Equinox in earth\u2019s northern hemisphere. It was at 16h33 and 23 seconds, French time, according to the Institute for Celestial Mechanics and Computation of Ephemerides<\/a> (IMCCE) in Paris, that at that moment in the astronomical cycle the sun was exactly above the equator, making the day and night equal, announcing sunnier times, longer days and shorter nights. In some parts of the world, for some 300 million people, the Equinox calls for days of celebrations devoted to a commemoration of life, new beginnings, and nature\u2019s rejuvenation.<\/p>\n

People have held this celebration sacred for over 3,000 years in regions that include the Balkans, the Black Sea Basin, the Caucasus, the Levant and Central Asia into Iran and Afghanistan. Organized religions, however \u2014 including Catholicism, Judaism and Islam \u2014 have tried to stifle these pagan celebrations\u200a, because they remind people of our collective past before there was one true god.<\/p>\n

Why would anyone repress, on a mass scale no less, a celebration of the Equinox, a merry event that comes at a time of year after the long winter \u2014 an occasion that prompts folks to deep clean their houses! In what world is this bad? On a more spiritual level, it seeks to bring families together to feel joy over something as intrinsically good and even tangible as nature springing into flowering blossoms\u2026<\/p>\n

I know why, of course: it\u2019s all politics and power grabbing of people\u2019s minds. It\u2019s not enough to demand fealty to God; religious leaders must also control your social calendar. But let\u2019s not give them more than these two lines.<\/p>\n

In Iran, this holiday is called Nowruz and celebrations go on for 13 days, usually ending in an all-out family picnic. Indeed, Nowruz is a festival f\u00eated worldwide by various ethnolinguistic groups, rooted in the rituals and traditions of the Zoroastrian religion. In every Persian home, in Iran and abroad, the \u201chaft sin<\/a>\u201d table is painstakingly decorated and proudly paraded for visitors to see and gush over. In Persian, \u201chaft\u201d means 7, lucky number 7 and \u201csin\u201d is the letter (s) pronounced \u201cseen.\u201d Sin is also the letter at the beginning of each of the items on the designated table, each of them being a symbol of spring and renewal. These items may vary from household to household, but are usually comprised of:<\/p>\n