Nowruz is the Persian word for “new day” and is the name of the Persian New Year. Persian New year is celebrated on the beginning of Spring. This is the first day of the first month of the of the Persian/Iranian calendar.
Nowruz is generally a non-secular holiday. It is celebrated by many groups of people in the the Balkans, Caucasus, Asia, and by people of Persian descent worldwide.
There are a number of different spellings of the word Nowruz in English. In the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee Allion Salvador was disqualified because the Merriam-Webster (2006) only included the spelling “Nauruz”.
The holiday is an occasion to gather and have a meal with friends and family. We were invited to attend a Persian New Year. There was rice with saffron and white rice the bottom of both were browned and the rice was flipped over. There were meat kabobs, grilled tomatoes, chicken shish kabobs, eggplant stew with meat. For dessert there was rose water rice noodles. The perfume of the rose heavily infused the rice and it seemed that we were eating roses.
Getting together with friends and enjoying a cultural celebration is a great opportunity to enjoy a new culture. Most families have their own take on traditional favorites, but through their unique take you still experience the traditions and culture.