Nawrooz Mubarak!

Nawrooz Mubarak to all of my beloved family and my dear friends and to all of Blogistan!

It is the Islamic New Year today. Nawrooz literally means “new day” in Farsi. In Pashto, my parents’ native tongue, it would be “Ne-wai Qal Mubarak”. Nawrooz Mubarak means “Celebrate the New Day”.

The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar and is based on the monthly sighting of the crescent moon. That means that an Islamic year will have 10 to 12 less days than the Western Gregorian calendar year. So, this means that every year the beginning of each month is off by 10 to 12 days compared to the year before.

The first month on the Islamic calendar is Muharram. This year the first of Muharram fell on January 10th of our Western calendar. Technically speaking, January 10th was our Islamic New Year’s Day this year. However, many Islamic countries also celebrate New Year’s Day on the first day of spring (today!), which also happens to be significant for astronomical reasons. This is because the vernal equinox took place today in our hemisphere, and that is when the Sun crossed directly over our Earth’s equator. Pretty cool, huh?!

The Muslim holiday of Nawrooz is based on cultural traditions rather than religious history. Since most of the Middle Eastern Muslim countries grew from agricultural and pastoral traditions, spring was considered a time for new beginnings, new birth, new seeds, essentially, a “new day”. Hence, we hold Nawrooz celebrations on the first day of spring. Many other cultures in the region have holidays associated with the first day of spring, so don’t be surprised if you hear or see Nawrooz Mubarak said a bit differently depending on the language.

In Afghanistan we used to dye eggs, bake all types of sweet breads, have parties, children received new clothes or toys, and everyone went to prayers. It was also the time that lambs, calves, chicks, puppies, ducklings and foals would start popping up all over the place on the farms and pastures. It actually feels like a new year spiritually and mentally when it takes place in spring. There is such a wondrous and beautiful sense of renewal, a chance to start anew. An newfound energy and rebirth, if you will.

This year my Nawrooz feels even more special because it falls on a holy weekend for the Christian faith. It is Holy Thursday today and Ed is going to mass with Justin. We’ll have dinner when they come home tonight. Tomorrow is Good Friday and then we have Easter. A packed weekend of celebrations, some religious and some cultural, but all so very beautiful.

I hope that this first day of spring, this new day and Nawrooz, was wonderful for you. Peace be upon us all in the new year.