Good News: It's Still Norooz
Plot twist for the newbies + things that feel like spring.
Hello gorgeous! Happy Tuesday, happy Noroozday. That might be confusing considering last week’s Noroozletter, but here’s some good news: we’re still celebrating. Norooz is a 13-day long holiday!
In Iran, schools are closed for two weeks, their very literal spring break, offices are closed for a few days or the entire time as well. The holiday culminates with a day called Sizdeh Bedar, literally translating to Thirteen to the Door. Goodbye to the globally ominous number 13 — to get rid of that day, we head towards parks and hang out in nature, often with a picnic and barbecue situation and lots of music and dancing. Given that most of us aren’t on Norooz holiday and are working, we typically spend this coming Sunday out and about celebrating. So if you don’t have Sunday plans, consider it! We go out on that day even when it rains, some saying the rain is a good omen for the new year. Someone always makes aash - our legume soup, and I highly recommend trying that out as well, perhaps the one from my cookbook (yes, I linked to Google — buy it wherever you’d like, the cut is all the same for the author)!
In the theme of spring and Norooz, here’s an assortment of springy things I’m consuming, starting off with a sentence I never thought I’d write.
Ed Sheeran’s next single is called “Azizam,” which means my love in Farsi. His Iranian music producer Ilya Salmanzadeh inspired it, somehow Ed has gathered some of the biggest Iranian musicians to give backing vocals, and he decided to tease it on Norooz. I have mixed feelings on Sheeran’s musical catalogue: an intrusive thought I have is the lyric “we talked for hours and hours about the sweet and sour” and it genuinely upsets me. That said, I am selfishly excited for a mainstream pop song to bring this term to the masses. My subscribers — you are all azizams and don’t you forget it.
Relatedly, I’d be remiss not to mention another random celebrity that has had both azizams and Norooz on his mind for over a decade. Who might that be? will.i.am.
He’s not new to this, he’s true to this - starting in 2012.
The changes in spelling to Norooz over time resonate hard as this holiday is spelled about ten different ways (I reject Nowruz personally bc it makes English speakers pronounce it NOW-ruz when it’s NO ROOZ).
When I tell you that consumed is a curation of the things I consume and that are consuming me, this might be the epitome. I think about this all the time - I think he stopped in recent years but also judging by the changing spellings of Norooz every year it’s actually hard to verify this. The 2017 addition of photos with Iranian terms of endearment is something I’d see my Aunties or Uncles doing, and I just adore it. I also need to acknowledge his Twitter handle is ‘iamwill’ — I love that little twist. To Ed Sheeran and his management team: get will.i.am on the remix, stat.
Next up, the incredible Iranian astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli set up a haft-sin (traditional Norooz spread) IN SPACE! And it’s gorgeous! I should note that this image makes me feel riddled with guilt for not having set one up in my temporary housing situation.
Maryam Keyhani is an Iranian designer who makes some of the most fabulous, fun hats and accessories I’ve ever seen. Her haft-sin is a delight, as is this photo dump from the start of the holiday.
The caption really hit home though, here’s one bit of it: “Being Iranian is so complex- nostalgic and beautiful but also confusing and a million other things these displaced big big hearts experience… we feel at home everywhere and nowhere / it’s a culture filled with beauty at the same time heavy baggage we carry from the past - it’s ancestral power but also ancestral trauma- it’s memories we love to keep but also some we must forget to survive / its some beautiful traditions we want to pass along to our kids but also some problematic ones we hope they never have to deal with. Amongst all this, it’s community. That makes all above possible.”
Whew. Everywhere is home and also nowhere is home. What does home look like for you when you can’t quite return to home? When the motherland is a place in your memory or a story you’ve made up? This is a heavy weight we carry — and it’s not limited to our diaspora — but it’s something I think about all the time.
Another beautiful springy Norooz spread is from the Iranian founder of Cult Gaia, Jasmin Larian. It’s giving the opulence of an Iranian wedding with the springiness of Norooz and something that would go on a moodboard if I was a moodboarding person. Do you moodboard? I’m so curious about it as a creative practice but have never prioritized it or found the time.
Last but not least, I leave you with the beautiful poetry of Ada Limón, which is perfect for the start of this new season.
Let us return to the strange idea of continuous living despite the mess of us.
See you on Friday.
Roya
Unfortunately I cannot forgive you for getting Shape of You stuck in my head