Today is the vernal equinox, or the first official day of spring. A lot of people are happy to see the first day of spring, but it's especially important for the people of Iran, or Persians. For them it's the first day of the celebration of Nowruz, the Persian New Year. Nowruz has many traditions, including lighting fires and banging pots to beat out the unlucky last day of the year, but most importantly they set the table. There is a symbolic setting on the table, with a special cloth called the sofreh-ye haft-sinn (the setting of seven dishes) consisting of seven lucky and symbolic foods each beginning with the Persian letter sinn. The lucky foods include spouts, apples, the fruit of the wild olive, garlic, sumac berries, and vinegar.
There are several traditional dishes served at a Nowruz party. They all have their symbolic meanings about life and rebirth, health and luck among others. One dish is samanu, a wheat sprout pudding representing rebirth. There is also baklava, chickpea cookies and candied almonds to symbolize prosperity.
All of the food mentioned here sounded great. This is the first year I had heard about Nowruz, but I always like finding out about other cultures. I love finding out about food from other cultures, and finding out about Nowruz has really gotten me excited about Persian food. How about you?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-20-2008 @ 10:27PM
jrsygir1 said...
persian is my favorite....i esp like the ice cream and the water ice with the noodles in it...i make persian new year dinner every year...little chickens, hummous, egg salad with peas, basmati with candied orange peel and pistachios and topped with tadig if i can get it right, and baklava with rose water. then next week i'll make bisteeya with all the left over rice, chopped chicken and phyllo dough. i got my goldfish today for the table and ill find some grass by sunday.
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