Thursday, March 20, 2008


Iranian New Year
This is the festive table at Selma's family home in Tehran, in honour of the New Year celebration, Norwuz. It is a holiday whose tradition goes back to pagan times, before the beginning of history as we known it, which may account for the jollity of the table: green grass, well-read apples, gold fish, flowers, honey.
She explains about the New Year holiday, which also marks the beginning of spring, here.
I like very much the idea of the green grass being present at the table. It's been a very long time since I've seen any green grass and this reality does not seem likely to change here in the north Pole in the forseeable future...
White ice, dirty slush, grey sky and another snow storm in the making. When will it end?
Anyway, happy holiday to Selma, may you have a sweet and scholarly year, just as you like it.
By way of virtual gift, here is a song by the Israeli singer Rita, who is of Iranian descent. She has a few songs in Persian but I couldn't find them on line.

2 Comments:

At 1:14 PM EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you dear Noga!
I love the song too, she reminds me of my highschool classmate who was Jewish. Her name is Sepideh ... I wonder if she is still in Iran.

 
At 10:23 PM EDT, Blogger The Contentious Centrist said...

Someone named Sepideh left a comment on Selma's blog. I wonder if it's the same Sepideh that Selma remembered here. If it is, can you not marvel at the wonder of the Internet and how it brings people closer?

It's a small world, after all...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqTyBBit7NI&feature=related

 

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