A 3,000-year-old Iranian tradition for people of all faiths, Nowruz is celebrated by the world’s Persian-speaking community and other ethno-linguistic groups across Western Asia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Black Sea Basin, the Balkans and even parts of Europe.
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, India, Albania, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Kosovo are some of the countries, where the tradition is observed.
In countries, where Persian is the mother tongue, like in Tajikistan, the occasion is honored as a public holiday.
The occasion, marking the vernal equinox, falls in March every year.
In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly recognized the International Day of Nowruz, describing it as a spring festival of Iranian origin, which has been celebrated for more than three millennia.
Nowruz was officially registered on the UNESCO List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009.
It is one of the world’s most long-established celebrations, running back more than 30 centuries. It has its roots in ancient Persia, and is thus still celebrated mostly across the Persian Plateau, especially Iran, which holds the largest concentration of the world’s Persians.
People spread out the proverbial Haft-Seen table, an arrangement of seven items alliteratively beginning with the letter “Seen” in the Persian Alphabet, which sounds similar to “S.”
These symbolic items represent health, prosperity, longevity, reproduction and happiness for the family members throughout the year.
Iranian Haft Seen also includes Quran, Islam’s holy book.
The holidays culminate in Sizdah Bedar, the 13th day of the New Year, a day of family outings.
People take to parks and other green spaces countrywide, usually eat al fresco, and dispose of the Haft Seen’s Sabzeh, a patch of grown sprouts kept as an item on the Haft-Seen.
