This year’s Jamshedi Navroz celebrations mark the start of the year of wealth

Irani couple celebrate New Year with friends and family on Wednesday.

KARACHI: If you entered the Irani Residence in Defence on Wednesday, you will see Dinaz Irani - known to her loved ones as Diney - in her traditional cap greeting families and spraying rose water on each person, making sure their lives are brighter in the future.

At exactly 4:01pm, the Jamshedi Navroz was celebrated. Diney made everyone look into the mirror she was holding so they could smile in it and spend the rest of the year the same way - happy and smiling. She then ushered the families to the table, offering them something sweet to eat.

Diney, who is the chairperson of the entertainment committee at the Banu Mandil, said that her family celebrated both Navroz - the one in March called Jamshedi Nauroz, and the one in August. She explained that people from Iran usually celebrate the Jamshedi Nauroz.

Since there are no leap years in their calendar, the New Year’s date has drifted from the original March 21 to August now, she explained. Some people are waiting that once it completes its cycle and lands back on the March date, they will remake the calendar and celebrate one Nauroz.



This is the year of the snake and the colour is green, said Diney, but after consulting her sister who lives in Iran, she said the colour is actually white. “Either way, it’s the year of wealth.”

Her husband, Noshir Irani, pointed out that, “It’s a lot like the Chinese calendar.” “We also have an animal and a colour for each year, but we don’t have a dragon.”

Diney explained that once someone starts setting up a Navroz table, they cannot stop. She started it after she married her husband who is from an Irani descent. Noshir added that his grandmother was the one who started the table in his family. “Soon after she died, the responsibility was taken over by my mother, and now Diney.”

Noshir remembers Navroz from his childhood when his parents decorated the table and invited couples over. When he was young someone told him that they kept a painted egg on the table, which was supposed to turn at the exact time the New Year began. “If it didn’t, no one would be served dinner,” he recalled, not sure whether it was an actual belief or a joke.

With candles and painted eggs, the tables at Noshir’s house contained all the seven things that start with the sound ‘sh’ in Persian - sharab [wine], shakar [sugar], shir [milk], shirin berenjor [sweet meat], shirin [sweet], shahad [honey] and shira [syrup].



The table was also filled with items starting with the letter ‘s’. Sabzi [green vegetables] that symbolise rebirth, a silver coin in a bowl filled with water, an apple and oregano that symbolise abundance of wealth and life, painted eggs that symbolise fertility, a lit candle symbolising enlightenment and happiness, fresh fruits, dried fruits, fresh flowers and many other items were spread across the table.

You also have to grow seeds at least 10 days before Navroz and keep it on the table to reflect growth, happiness and prosperity. Navroz is originally celebrated for 13 days and the table is kept decorated for all days, as people receive visitors and wear new clothes. On the 13th day, the greenery is thrown into the sea.

On the Tuesday before Nauroz, a bonfire is set up for ‘Churshama Kulla’, a tradition according to which people jump over the fire three times to take all the dullness away and give people brightness and good health.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 21^st, 2013.