The Nowruz, festival of nature
The Embassy of Iran contributed the article below on the occasion of the Nowruz Festival. — ED.
Every year, the Nowruz Festival (New Day) is celebrated in Iran as her motherland, and some other countries in the regions of the Middle East (Iraq), central and East Asia (Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan), South Caucasus (Azerbaijan) and parts of Eastern Europe (Albania, and Georgia).
This natural event which is named the festival of nature, marks the beginning of the New Year, and the rebirth of nature and its resurrection after the long winter sleep.
The history of this celebration dates back as far as 3,000 years and the era of the primordial Persian king, Jamshid, according to Iranian mythology.
In etymology and origin of the Nowruz, it is said that this festival was deeply rooted in primeval Iranian religions such as Mithraism from “Mithra” (the Divinity of Covenant and Contracts, a judicial figure, an all-seeing Protector of Truth, and the Guardian of Cattle, the Harvest and of The Waters).
The Aryans, Iranian people in the ancient time, have been celebrating spring equinox and autumnal equinox in the beginning of spring and autumn as the times for plantation and harvesting. In Persian literature, Nowruz has been referred to as the feast of the king and is one of the most magnificent festivities and ceremonial traditions survived from the ancient Persian Civilization and pre-historic world.
This event were gloriously held and celebrated in the castles of the ancient Persian kings. On the day of Nowruz, representatives of other countries would arrive at the Apadana, a large audience hall at Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (ca. 550-330 B.C.) and present their souvenirs of their government to the king.
This widely recognized and celebrated tradition has held on through the meanders, twists, wars, political and social changes.
This magnificent tradition has arched upon deep dark valleys of the history and bridged the ancient Persian civilization once spanning 5.5 million square kilometers, and larger than any previous empire in history to its posterities presently spread all across different independent sovereignties.
In a retrospective outlook, since, Nowruz as a rich cultural tradition and bearing commendable values has remained to a great extent intact throughout ages and inherited to us from our earliest ancestors, It is of an exceptional importance in providing us with a deeper insight as to the ways they thought and lived. It is also a matter of pride for the Iranian civilization.