Celebrating Novruz in Azerbaijan
Youth Leadership Program alums from Azerbaijan share about the celebration of Spring
One of the great things about building relationships with other cultures is that it can dramatically increase the number of holidays you get to celebrate each year. Yesterday, March 21, marked the annual celebration of Novruz, an important holiday for our friends in Azerbaijan.
A 1996 Azerbaijani postage stamp issued for Novruz.
Novruz Bayram (as the celebration is called in Azerbaijan) is a celebration of the beginning of Spring. Updated: The spelling and pronunciation vary from country to country (including Nowruz, Navruz, Nooruz, Nevruz, Nauryz). "Now" translates to "new" in Farsi, and "ruz" translates to "day" - the "new day" symbolizes the start of a new year, and is celebrated on the astronomical vernal equinox, which is usually March 21. Originating over 3,000 years ago in Persia, Nowruz is now celebrated all over the world by over three million people of diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds, including in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Albania, Macedonia, Turkmenistan, Canada and the United States. (For teachers interested in teaching about Nowruz - or anyone who wants to learn more - you can download a curriculum from the Outreach Center for Middle East Studies here.)
Last summer, FIUTS welcomed a group of students from Azerbaijan to Seattle for one of our Youth Leadership Programs. Nazrin, one of the participants in the program, describes her celebration of Novruz this way:
"Novruz is translated as 'a new day,' and it means the arriving of the Spring. These days people cook different types of sweets such as shekerbura and pakhlava. Azerbaijani people light candles for how many people are in the family, it’s a tradition. People go to each other’s house by talking, dancing, and celebrating the arrival of the Spring. Also people turn over the fire outside and jump over it for seven times. By jumping over the fire, people leave out all the bad things in the fire and new life begins."
Sayyara, another YLP participant, sent this photo to share another aspect of Novruz in Azerbaijan:
Semeni (green sprouting wheat) is part of the sacred ceremony of Novruz and has traditionally been grown in copper dishes from wheat, lentils, peas, barley, and other grains. This sprouting semeni represents the start of spring, the beginning of a rich and abundant harvest season, and with it the joy of new life and vitality.
Youth Leadership Program with Azerbaijan participants in Seattle last summer.
Want to know more about how Azerbaijan is celebrating Novruz? Click here and here. Happy Spring to all our FIUTS friends, in Seattle (where it just started snowing) and around the world!
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The Youth Leadership Program with Azerbaijan is a short-term cultural and educational exchange program focused on expanding relationships between U.S. and Azerbaijani students, educators, and communities from differing ethnic, religious, and social groups and strengthening ties between the two countries. The program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and is administered by American Councils for International Education and FIUTS.