Sunday 22 March 2015

Persian New Year, Norouz

Nowruz, “New Day”, is the holiest and most joyful festival of the Zoroastrian year and the most important national festival for all Iranians. Its celebration is recorded from the Achaemenian period around 500 BCE.

The name Nowruz first appears in Pahlavi texts from the Sasanian period, as nōg rōz. It is a celebration of spring equinox, when the sun begins to regain strength and there is a renewal of growth in nature. Zoroastrians believed in the existence of a cognitive spirit, mainyu in all things, tangible or intangible. So the return of spring represented an annual victory for the Spirit of the sun. They also believed that the struggle between good and evil would end in total victory for the good.

In the beginning Ahura Mazda created a perfect world that was disturbed by the evil spirit Ahriman. The “limited time” of conflict humans have now; will be succeeded by the “Time of Long Dominion” (virtually eternity), when the world will be restored to the perfect state in which Ahura Mazda created it. Therefore, traditional spring festival also represented the “New Day” or the “New Era” a reminder of the time, which will finally bring everlasting bliss, ends all conflicts and culminates with the victory of Good over Evil.




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