Happy Norooz (aka Persian New Year)!
Our Sofreh Haft Seen for Norooz
Happy first day of Spring and Persian New Year! Around this time of year, my Facebook feed is filled with friends and relatives posting photos of their sofrehs for Norooz. Remember mine from last year?
This year’s sofreh is even more obscure…
Kyle’s against the objectification of fish, apparently. So in an effort to protest using live fish as decoration this year, we put out a bowl of pizza-flavored goldfish crackers instead. And for coins, I went with some cheesy plastic ones I found on Amazon… and they arrived with skulls on them! I don’t think I’ll be using them again next year, since Norooz is more about rebirth and new beginnings than pirates. One constant that we’ll always have on our sofreh is dinosaurs. It’s an old tradition to place clay figurines of animals on the sofreh to bear witness to the coming of life, so we went with our favorite succulent-housing-dino: the ankylosaurus. We also introduced a new holy book this year: Louisa Shafia’s “The New Persian Kitchen“. And the final twist to our sofreh: chocolate pudding. Yep, instead of the traditional samanu (wheat germ pudding), I change it up because I much prefer licking chocolate off a spoon.
If you ever wanted to know what a normal, tasteful adult’s sofreh looks like, here’s a peek. Notice the lack of dinosaurs, fully sprouted greens, and legitimate book of poetry.
My cousin Ghazaleh’s beautiful, modern-meets-traditional sofreh haft seen
Lots of sweets to be enjoyed with tea after the countdown
Look! Real samanu! (Not chocolate pudding!)
Counting Down
The exact second of the Norooz countdown is calculated as “the moment the sun crosses the celestial equator and equalizes night and day”. As a result, it never takes place at midnight, but instead ends up at much stranger times of day that change every year (like 11am on a Wednesday or 3am on a Friday). This year, we were lucky enough to have the the countdown take place on a Saturday night, exactly 12 seconds after 9:30pm. My cousin had our whole family over at his new home to celebrate Norooz and feast together.
As our family grows to include new members from many different backgrounds, I’m so grateful that we all make it a priority to keep the spirit of Norooz and our Persian heritage alive through it all.
Me and my momma!
My cousin Alex, my husband Kyle, and two little twins beating them both
The queens of the family
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