The first thing that bothered me the day I was packing my bags was to deprive my child of the unconditional love of his grandparents, aunts and uncles. When you enter a foreign country, the first few years are spent struggling with the problems of immigration and discovering and adapting to the new world. When my son went to school and did his homework in English, I got my first jerk: so what happens to my mother tongue? Interestingly, my son’s foreign school teacher gave me the first and most significant help in this regard: “Speak to him only at home in his mother tongue and do not worry at all about learning his English.” This constant and straightforward admiration for praising the Iranian language and culture encourage our son to not only speak Persian with the Iranian accent but also gradually go after the Persian translation of many words. Teaching a child outside of Iran to read and write Persian while another language surrounds his whole world is a long story that does not fit in this article.
In this article, as a mother concerned about teaching Iranian culture to her child, I want to share my experience in preserving part of this precious culture and one of the most ancient relics of our country for Iranian children abroad. Nowrooz is perhaps one of the greatest and the most Iranian celebration that has never disappeared from the long history of this land. However, as it gets older, and even today, it is celebrated in many countries by Iranians abroad in its most glorious form. It is as though Nowrooz is a reminder of Iran for all expatriate Iranians. With its rich philosophy, each year it displays its power to keep the ancient civilization alive.
So, how wonderful it is to teach our children the philosophy and themes of its customs, along with all the colorful and glittering culture of Nowrooz, and to draw their attention to its roots. In the future, in this world of different cultures and different nations, they will not lose their identity, but will know that they belong to the Aryan Iran and be proud of being Iranian. This historic self-confidence will make children with Iranian identity more proud and powerful in the future.
The solutions I have found so far are as follows:
Since school is a second home for children, our children need to be able to share their knowledge of Nowruz with their classmates. In countries with diverse immigrants, such as the United States, this is very simple and defined by teachers, and often even children are encouraged to do so. For younger children, a simple drawing of seven trays with a brief description of the philosophy of each tray or preparing a small tray and taking it to school is a common practice. Older children can introduce these beautiful customs to their classmates and show their pride to other cultures by making presentations about Nowrooz customs, such as Chaharshanbeh souri, Sizdah bedar, the philosophy of Nowruz 9spring) cleaning, and Nowrooz visits. During the epidemic and distance learning, my son had the chance to show his friends, online, the Nowrooz table spread out at home, and more interestingly, arouse his classmates’ curiosity and their interest in learning more about this mysterious table. It was a secret that made me realize that it was a very successful method. If your child does not want to participate in making presentations, you can use ready-made PowerPoints on the Internet.
Today, face-to-face and online workshops in various countries introduce Nowrouz to children through art and literature (painting, music, poetry, and handicrafts). You can register your children to provide them with a new experience.
There are also various packages, books, crafts, and music for children available in many online stores that you can use at this time.
Participating children in Nowrouz festivals (music, photography, handicrafts, singing, dancing, writing, painting, etc.) is another way to make children interested in Nowrouz.
Making a Nowruz greeting card and sending it to Iranian friends is another activity children enjoy.
Now-a-days, Chaharshanbeh souri ceremonies with their Iranian flavor, including Iranian food, music and parties are held in most of the cities that have Iranian communities. It is good that besides participating in this ceremony and enjoying the unique beauty of the fire and jumping on it, the philosophy and story of Chaharshanbeh Soori are also told to children and teenagers to let them know the reasons and roots of this tradition.
Feng shui is now being referred to as an essential topic in the modern world, while deep house cleaning, and removing the stale feeling from our homes and our hearts has been a common practice among all Iranians since ancient times. Since Nowrooz is generally not a holiday abroad, the last weekend of the year is dedicated to this important issue together with participation of the children in this tradition.
Another tradition during this time of the year in many Iranian and Zoroastrian cities is adding children’s names in the list that Haji firooz (uncle Nowrooz) will visit and give gifts to children. Suppose this custom is not held in your town. In that case, you can show the films and photos of Haji Firooz and Amoo Nowrouz to children. Iranian children should know that in contrast to Santa Claus, there are such characters in Iranian culture which have a older history.
Because of the environment in which they live, children abroad usually expect to receive gifts on Xmas, like the other children there, which of course the parents encourage. However, it is good that we also observe our Nowrooz custom so that our children can repeat this in the future, to give gifts to their children as well, on Nowrooz.
Colored eggs are a favorite part of the Nowrooz table for children, and it is unbelievable how they can be so creative in this area. Apart from the coincidence of Nowrouz and Easter time and Easter eggs, you can also use the plastic eggs available in stores at this time to create a more lasting effect for children.
On Valentine’s day, students in the US are often asked to bring small gifts for all the classmates. One of the Iranian mothers, using the availability of easter eggs at this time of the the year and the proximity of Valentine season to Nowrooz, bought them for her child’s classmates, painted them with a Nowrooz theme and added a short text on the philosophy and concept of Nowrooz. This way he was able to show the beautiful Iranian culture and remind her son of his true identity, while also celebrating valentine’s day in a non-Iranian country.
One of the advantages of Nowrooz is undoubtedly the growing of greenery and planting of legumes and grains, and the display of sprouting and coming to life of nature in the spring, compared to the celebrations in which a tree is cut down and brought into the house for decorating. Preparing the seeds and seeing the day-to-day sprouting, greening, and growth of the greens themselves is so appealing to children that they go along with it.
Involving children in spreading the Nowrooz table and arranging the symbolic items on it takes place in most Iranian homes today. It is good that at the time of placing each try on the table its philosophy is told to the children.
Today, many festivals are held on the thirteenth day of Nowrouz around the world, and spending the 13th day in nature and eating noodle soup and fresh lettuce leaves with sweet/sour syrup will undoubtedly remain in our children’s memories.
In addition to all these beautiful customs shared among Iranians, Zoroastrians, wherever they are, have their biggest celebration, the birth of Zarathushtra, on the 6th day of Nowrooz, and all Zoroastrian associations all over the world put every effort to celebrate this day in the best way possible and involve children and the youth in this celebration.
I hope that this article has been able to have a brief travel to this ancient and meaningful religion and emphasize on the importance of its protection by our children and all Iranians in every corner of the world, in order to preserve Iranian culture and civilization and pass it on from generation to generation. Each of us may be forced to leave our homeland and live somewhere else. However, preserving our ancient culture and historical memory anywhere in the world can be our choice again because Iran will always remain our motherland.
These are the strategies of a mother who raises her child away from the motherland and is concerned about preserving her child’s identity and staying Iranian. However, I think it is important to introduce our roots to our children wherever they are growing up, especially that the market for non-iranian festivals are heating up. with the commercialized propaganda around Halloween and Xmas in Iran, the fear of lack of interest for our own invaluable customs exist even inside Iran. If you have had different experiences in teaching this ancient tradition to your children please write in the comments section, to be included in future articles.
We laud the efforts of all the mothers and fathers who try to keep alive our ancient culture and pass it on through the dark valleys of history, to the future. Attached is a painting of a Nowrooz table by my son, Arvin.
