Japanese Ambassador to Tehran Aikawa Kazutoshi recites lyrics in a poem by ancient Persian lyric poet Hafez, to commemorate Persian New Year, Nowruz, which is just around the corner.
“Yalda Night,” also known as “Shab-e Chelleh,” observed both in Iran and Afghanistan, goes on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Millions of black-clad Iranians across the country, like other Shia Muslims worldwide, marked Ashura on Monday, the martyrdom anniversary of the third Shia Imam and the Prophet’s grandson, Imam Hussein (peace be upon him).
For the Kurmanji Kurds in Iran’s northeastern North Khorasan province, tying the knot is the most important event in anyone’s life that is celebrated with a colorful and joyful ceremony.
Gargee’an, or qarqee’an, is the name of a popular ritual among Arabs in Iran’s Khouzestan and Hormozgan, and in Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait, eastern Saudi Arabia (Ahsa and Qatif), and the United Arab Emirates.
The people in Iran’s southern Hormozgan Province, like their other compatriots, have clung firmly to their religious rituals during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, during which they abstain from all food or drink from dawn to sunset, among other things.
Sizdah Be-dar is the last festival in the Nowruz festivities in Iran that come after Khaaneh Tekani, Charshanbe Suri, Tahvile Saal (beginning of the new year), Haft Seen and Nowruz family visits.
A festive carnival, called the Carnival of Joy, has been travelling across Iran’s north-central province of Semnan, as Iranians are celebrating the start of spring and the Persian New Year.
The United Nations has celebrated the International Day of Nowruz, which marks the start of spring, with the participation of Iran and 11 other countries that observe the ancestral festivity.
An expert on the rituals practiced by the Kurmanji Kurds says Cheleh Chov (Kurdish for “the 40th day of winter is over”) and Axer Charshembi (Kurdish for “the last Wednesday”) are among the transition feasts that have been long held by the Kurdish community of Khorasan Province in Iran for the purpose of leaving the old year behind and beginning a new year and season of working and effort.
Iranians are getting ready to ring in the Persian New Year, Nowruz.
Shopping centers, in particular, are seething with people, who are bustling around stores to buy the items they need.
They say old timers believed that the ashes from Chaharshanbe Suri were ominous. Also, families whose loved ones were ill or who had a wish made a vow and cooked āsh.
Chaharshanbe Suri is one of the most ancient and beautiful traditional festivals of Iran. This festival has been celebrated on the eve of the last Wednesday of the year since ancient times up until now. Chaharshanbe Suri is very popular among Iranians and is marked across the country.
A ceremony dubbed Nowruz Global Ritual has started in the tourism route of western Iran aimed at introducing the customs of this ancient occasion in the presence of different Iranian ethnic groups and guests from UNESCO in Hamadan as the capital of Iranian history and civilization.
Locals in the western Iranian village of Palangan, in Kurdistan Province have held their annual spring festival to mark the coming of the Persian New Year.
Nowruz is one of the most beautiful and lasting traditions of Iranians and ethnic Iranians, which is marked across the world.
Nowruz rituals ranging from Haji Firuz, Chaharshanbe Suri and New Year house-cleaning to Haft Seen and visits to relatives’ houses and Sizdah Bedar have evolved over a span of thousands of years and are observed with slight differences at each corner of the Iranian lands.
