A tale of two Spring feasts: Iranian Nowruz and Indian Parsi Jamshed-e-Navroz

Today is the Persian New Year, a celebration of spring and renewal. While the Iranian Nowruz and Parsi Jamshed-e-Navroz, which both mark the same occasion have much in common, they fall on different dates and have distinctive menus

Nowruz, the Persian New Year, is a time of renewal, hope, and joy celebrated by Iranians all over the world. The feast, served on the eve of the equinox, is a cherished tradition that brings families and friends together to enjoy the abundance of fresh ingredients.

As the winter chill melts away and flowers begin to bloom, Iranians all over the world await the arrival of the spring equinox to celebrate Nowruz. This ancient festival originated as a Zoroastrian celebration and has been observed for over 3,000 years. Nowruz, meaning “new day,” is a time of renewal, hope, and joy.

For Iranians, Nowruz is not only a new year celebration but also a celebration of spring. “It is just a beautiful time of year, with flowers blooming everywhere,” says Nasrin Karimi, who moved to Chennai from Iran in 1980. “The onset of spring looks and smells lovely, and that is how the feast at Nowruz is as well,” notes the Iranian whose restaurant Shiraz Art Cafe, in Chennai, serves authentic Persian food. This week, she is cooking Nowruz lunches and dinners, featuring ghormeh sabzi, berry chicken and plum chicken at the Westin in Chennai.

The celebration of Nowruz includes several rituals, such as a deep spring cleaning, small bonfires, and a grand decorative altar called  haft-seen, which features seven symbolic objects, each beginning with the letter “S” in Farsi. These objects include sprouted wheatgrass ( sabzeh), oleaster or wild olive ( senjed), an apple ( seeb), a pudding made of germinated wheat (samanu), the spice sumac ( somagh), vinegar ( serkeh), and garlic ( seer).

However, the most important element of Nowruz is the feast served on the eve of the equinox. Family and friends gather around the table to enjoy piles of herbs, the freshest fish, long-grain rice, and sweets. Each family has its own special dishes, but some of the delicacies are more time-consuming than others, like samanu, that needs hours of cooking in a pot.

Nasrin remembers her grandmother starting to prepare for the feast weeks before and even asking a baker to come home and help with the preparation. “As a child, I eagerly waited for it,” she recalls. Now, many families have started to buy pre-made samanu from shops, but for Nasrin and her family, the traditional way of making the feast is a cherished memory.

While the celebration marks the beginning of the new year on the first day of the Iranian calendar, which coincides with the March equinox, typically occurring around March 21, Parsis in India who follow the Zoroastrian calendar for their religious events, celebrate their new year in July or August.