Nowruz has a unique and valuable place in the belief of Iranians. Nowruz can be considered as the most important celebration among Iranians, the longevity of which dates back to millenia. In different parts of the country the people welcome Nowruz with special traditions. Some of these traditions are common among people of various states, cities and villages, and some others vary due to various climatic and geographic diversities.
The people of South Khorasan, like other Iranians, celebrate Nowruz with their traditions and welcome spring and Nowruz with customs such as Bibi gardi, spring cleaning, planting greens, hanabandan, and breaking pottery.
The people of South Khorasan, who are known for their rich culture and history, have special rituals to celebrate Nowruz, most of which are rooted in this desert area’s ancient history and culture.
he people of South Khorasan know the month of March as being the beginning of spring and Nowruz celebrations, and so perform customs such as Planting Greens, cooking Samanu, Shah Molaei tradition, Hanabandan, breaking pottery, bread making, stones and jugs, baking cookies, spring cleaning, reciting prayers for the dead, preparing the New Year dried nuts and fruit, like raisins, jujube, figs and apricots, roasting and salting seeds and pistachios, and the Haji Firooz play. People of this province also have other nowruz customs, like the Nowruz tablecloth which should always be white, and should be spread facing the qiblah, and during transition to the new year, incense is burned on fire.
Planting Greens
Planting greenery is one of the most firmly established customs of Nowruz in Birjand. This process starts about 2 weeks before Nowruz. Barley, wheat, lentils and/or mung beans are planteed in small or large trays and by New Year they have grown fully green in the plates or trays. In some families, a plate of greenery is prepared for each member of the family as a sign of good health, happiness and prosperity.
Cooking Samanu
Cooking samanu is another time-consuming, ceremonial and strongly supported tradition, the first steps of its preparation starting 40 to 50 days before Nowruz. Flat pans are placed on terraces for rain water to wet them. Then linen cloth is spread in them with wheat spread on them to soak in that water, or the wheat is spread on flat baskets woven from thin stalks of certain trees. When the wheat germinates it is split in a dry place to dry and prepare for grinding. After grinding, and repeatedly sifting, it is ready to be mixed with some regular wheat flour and special spices, such as turmeric, cinnamon, black seeds and caraway. This is then kneaded into dough, put in a pot on a stove with fire under it and burning coals on its lid. This is done just before Nowruz. When it is ready, it is cut into pieces and ready to be offered to Nowruz guests, together with nuts and fruit.
Hanabandan
Hanabandan is one of the forgotten customs of the province’s people in celebrating Nowruz. Of course, a group of people, especially adults, still celebrate Nowruz by dying their hair and fingers with henna. Being clean when the New Year arrives is one of the etiquettes that the people of birjand who believe that they should start the New Year with a clean body. The people of South Khorasan believe that henna is a religious tradition and it brings freshness and a feeling of youth and liveliness, and became of Nowruz everyone should be happy and joyful, therefore they apply the henna.
Shah Molaei tradition
Another tradition of South Khorasan province is the Shah Molaei custom, which is common in urban and rural areas of South Khorasan. A few days before Nowruz charitable people and local trustees visit the well-off people of that locality to collect donations, with which they prepare gifts and distribute among the needy.
Breaking pottery
Breaking pottery is one of the traditions of the last days of the year for the people of Ghaen, which has been performed in this city for a long time. This ancient custom is performed on the last Wednesday of the year. For this ceremony, old jars from which water does not seep and does not cool water over time, due to extended use, and the inside has formed algae, and the outside wall has turned green, are used. A few pieces of charcoal as a sign of misery, a little salt as a sign of bad eye, and a coin as a sign of poverty, is thrown into it. This jar is turned around the family members’ heads, and then thrown into the street from the top of the door, and these two lines are said while throwing the jar away”.
Sorrow; go away and happiness; welcome
Hardships; go away, and abundance; welcome
They believed that by breaking this jar, any harm and illness would stay away from this family. Finally, a new and clean jar is filled with water from the nearby spring and brought into the house. The pottery-breaking is performed with enthusiasm and joy and has been registered in the country’s intangible heritage (spiritual) list under the number 817-4/11/91.
In some villages, such as Khezri, people have exciting traditions along with the last-Wednesday-of-the-year celebrations. If the last Wednesday of the year coincides with the 14th night of the moon, each family, according to the number of household members, throws small stones into a jar, then the pot is placed in the oven and face the qiblah. On Chaharshanbesuri night, the pebbles are taken out of the jar. At the same time as each of the stones are removed, a member of the family recites a couplet or a singular poem, thus telling the fortune of each of the member for the coming year. This fun ceremony is known as “stone and jug”.
Nowruz dinner
One of the customs that some people of south Khorasan still keep is the Nowruz dinner. The tradition is that families that have their son newly engaged to a girl, take gifts for their son’s wife-to-be, on Nowruz; gifts like clothes, shoes, bags, and food items such as rice and meat. In most cases the bride’s family prepares dinner or lunch with the food items that the groom’s family has brought to their house during Nowruz and entertains them at dinner.
Sewing new clothes for the new year
Preparing new clothes for the first day of the new year is so important for the people that Nowruz has been named “The new-clothing festival” in some places. The people of South Khorasan, without exception, have to start off the morning of Nowruz by wearing newly sew or at least clean clothes, no matter how poor they are. Everyone prepares a new set of clothes to wear for this day, which is why it is known as the “The new clothing festival” in some areas. The people believe that new clothes on New Year is a good omen and that if they wear new clothes on New Year, sorrows and woes will be driven away to the next year, which is why people trying, under any situation, to wear new clothes for the first day of the New Year.
Spring Cleaning
The month before Nowruz men and women get busy cleaning up their homes. Men mostly tend to repair and renovation of the house, and women and girls do the dusting, carpet cleaning, and washing whatever is washable, and removing dust from everything in the house, because they believe that if they do not remove the old dust from their homes and the New Year arrives, the old year’s sorrows and woes will be transferred to the New Year.
Alafeh Day
On the eve of New Year the people of Birjand and some other cities of South Khorasan go in groups into the fields and walk on the grass to greet the spring. for the same purpose they sit on the greens and spend a few hours together with snacks to eat. For this purpose, they sit on the greens and spend hours eating snacks together.
Insisting on cooking Rice on Nowruz night
For the people of ancient Birjand pilaf for Nowruz dinner was a must. If Nowruz happens towards noon time family members gather in the house of the elder of the family, and have Nowruz lunch, consisting of fish and rice or qurmeh rice (hot meat with rice) and then start their Nowruz visits.
Bibi gardi, a special Nowruz tradition belonging to the Khezri Plain of Bayaz, Ghaenat district
Bibi gardi is one of the ceremonies of Nowruz that is still held in some parts of Ghaenat district, such as Khezri Dasht-e Bayaz, Karshak and Baskabad. The ceremony takes place on the 12th of Farvardin and is based on an ancient story that takes elderly women for a walk outside the village. In this ceremony, one of the elderly women of the village takes a raw clay brick and covers its surface with mud. Young women and girls make candle wicks with a piece of wood and cotton and light them on the clay.
Then, one of the elderly women picks up this brick and holds it over her head; all the women and girls walk behind her and leave the village, joyfully singing and playing the tambourine. They all gather in a spot where there used to be an aqueduct (kariz or qanat) and a well, which is now abandoned. They together throw the brick into the well and believe that they are throwing all their sorrows and woes away and start the New Year with joy, happiness and health. This ceremony has been registered in the list of spiritual heritages of the country, under No. 1457.
Sizdah Bedar
The people of South Khorasan province, like all other Iranians of different tribes, start off on the 13th day of New Year towards green fields and running water, and spend their time joyfully until sunset.
