Ooops - Persian New Year

Thank you Lisa Adeli from University of Arizona for this "good stuff!" and reminding us that a Happy New Day can, and is being celebrated, even when inside trying to quell the COVID virus.

Please forgive this late posting...Happy Nowruz to families celebrating around the world.

Last week was a blur getting children and household settled for "sheltering in place" in California. Now that we are settling into a routine I'm finally working my way through 200+ emails. A friend of ours is from Iran and practices Zoroastrian religion here in San Diego so when I saw this post I was so happy to learn more about his religion and tonight we will have Shah Toot jam on our ice-cream as a nod to his wonderful family and all that they graciously share with our family. Every year we are invited to their home to help harvest Shah Toot berries from the beautiful trees in their back yard. He brought the cuttings from Iran years ago. Over the years we have learned more about the berries and realized what a special treat they are not only to us, but to other middle-eastern families. According to our friend an berry cultivator...Shah means King or Leader and Toot means berries so he says they are the King's Berries. They are the most delicious berry I have ever tasted and to me taste as the color purple would taste if it were food. Hard to explain. They are also known as Persian Red Mulberries and are found in few places in the United States but if you can try them, please do. The darker the better. http://www.mypersiankitchen.com/shahtoot-persian-red-mulberries/


The Persian New Year is the biggest holiday in Iran, Kurdish lands, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and other places - and it's being celebrated now (the first day of the spring equinox, calculated to the minute!). It's a 5,000-year-old secular holiday (since its roots are in the ancient Zoroastrian religion, which isn't very widely practiced today), which combines some features of Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving all rolled into one. If you want to teach about it, here's a very short intro that young people can read: https://cmes.arizona.edu/sites/cmes.arizona.edu/files/Nowruz%20explanation_1.pdf AND you can check out a great website at: https://surfiran.com/nowruz-2020-iranian-new-year-2020/


Short videos - compare different celebrations in different countries:

BBC intro to Nowruz (2 min., 19 sec.)

Silk Road Dance Company (3 min., 14 sec.)

Nowruz in Iran (2 min., 11 sec.)

Nowruz in Azerbaijan (4 minutes, 22 sec.)

Nowruz in Iraqi Kurdistan (2 minute, 8 sec.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGsCx1nx9-Q and (1 min., 34 sec.)

Nowruz in Uzbekistan (4 min., 53 sec.)

Nowruz in Tajikistan (3 min., 27 sec.)

Nowruz in Afghanistan (3 min., 16 sec.) --Lisa Adeli, University of Arizona


Listserv: Be sure to visit the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at University of Arizona and sign-up for their newsletter. They don't fill-up your inbox and the resources are timely, unique and quality.

Book List: good list to buy for your school library so everyone has FREE access to read and enjoy...
http://www.middleeastpdx.org/resources/original/recommended-books-for-elementary-school/