Nowruz traditions and gift ideas - 11 ways to welcome the new year
How to celebrate Nowruz with family - the haft-sin, eidi, food, visits, greetings and gifts, with ideas from Iran to Kazakhstan and families abroad.
Nowruz means "new day". It is the new year that begins at the spring equinox, one of the oldest celebrations in the world, kept in Iran and Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, by Kurdish families across the region, and by communities from London to Los Angeles. It is not a religious holiday as such, but a family one, built on cleaning, visiting, eating together and wishing each other a good year.
Whether this is your hundredth Nowruz or your first at a friend's table, here are eleven ideas for making the days count.
1. Grow the sabzeh together
The green sprouts on the haft-sin are best grown at home. Soak wheat, lentils or mung beans and spread them on a damp plate or over an upturned clay pot about two weeks before the equinox, and water them every day. Children love checking on them each morning, and by the new year you have something that grew with the family. Tie a red ribbon around it when it is ready.
2. Set the haft-sin with the children
Let the youngest help lay the seven things whose Persian names begin with "s": sabzeh (sprouts), samanu (sweet wheat pudding), senjed (dried oleaster), sir (garlic), sib (apple), somagh (sumac) and serkeh (vinegar). Add a mirror, candles, painted eggs, coins and a book of poetry. Explain what each one stands for as you go: renewal, patience, health, love. Many families now place a glass or ceramic fish on the table instead of a live goldfish.
3. Do the khaneh tekani, then give things away
The great spring cleaning before Nowruz is a ritual of its own: shaking out the carpets, washing the windows, clearing the cupboards. Make it a family afternoon with music, and put aside clothes, toys and books for people who need them. Starting the year lighter is the whole point.
4. Prepare eidi for the children
Eidi is the gift elders give the young at Nowruz, traditionally crisp new banknotes tucked between the pages of a book. Ask the bank for fresh notes early, put them in small decorated envelopes with each child's name, and add a short handwritten wish. For older children and teenagers, a book, a small piece of jewellery or a gift card works just as well.
5. Bring the right gift when you visit
Nowruz is the season of visits, and the elders are visited first. Good things to bring: a pot of hyacinths (sonbol), whose scent is the smell of Nowruz in many homes; a box of pastries such as nan-e nokhodchi or baklava; a bowl of fresh fruit; or, in Azerbaijan, a tray of shakarbura and pakhlava.
6. Cook the dish of your region
Each country has its own Nowruz table. In Iran it is sabzi polo ba mahi, herbed rice with fish, and kuku sabzi. In Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan it is nauryz kozhe, a soup of seven ingredients, served on a full dastarkhan. In Uzbekistan and Tajikistan women gather to stir sumalak, a sweet wheat-sprout paste, through the night, singing as they take turns. Choose one dish you have never made and learn it from the oldest cook in the family.
7. Send greetings in the right language
A greeting in someone's own language goes a long way. "Nowruz mobarak" or "Eyd-e shoma mobarak" in Persian, "Newroz pîroz be" in Kurdish, "Novruz bayramınız mübarək" in Azerbaijani, "Nauryz kutty bolsyn" in Kazakh. A voice message is warmer than text, especially for grandparents, and a call at the exact moment the year turns is something people remember.
8. Read a fal-e Hafez
In many Iranian homes someone opens the Divan of Hafez at random and reads the poem aloud as a gentle fortune for the year. It is a lovely moment for the whole table: everyone makes a silent wish, the eldest reads, and the family argues happily about what the verse means. A fine edition of Hafez makes a classic gift.
9. Make a song for the family
Write a short description of your Nowruz, the people around the table, what everyone cooks, who is far away this year, and AI Music turns it into a song with real vocals in about a minute, with your family's names in the lyrics. It can be sung in Persian, Kazakh, Azerbaijani, Russian, English or more than 40 languages. For relatives in another country, send the link, which plays in any browser, or a gift page that stays sealed until the new year with a countdown on their screen. Your first song is free.
10. Bring back an outdoor game
In Kazakhstan young people gather around the altybakan, a big six-pole swing, to sing and talk. In many villages across Central Asia there are horse games and wrestling, and in Iran the evening of Chaharshanbe Suri lights up with bonfires. If you are in a city, organise something simpler: a family walk to see the blossom, a football match with the cousins, a kite on the first warm day.
11. Plan the Sizdah Bedar picnic early
On the thirteenth day of the new year Iranian families leave the house for a picnic in the open air, since staying indoors that day is said to bring bad luck. Choose the park in advance, cook the day before, and bring the sabzeh with you. Young people knot blades of grass while making a wish, and at the end of the day the sabzeh is released into running water, taking the old year's troubles with it.
Pick the two or three ideas that suit your family. By the time the picnic blankets are folded, you will have started the year together.
