Category Archives: Persian culture

Hip Tehran: Vali Asr Avenue

Posted on 05/13/2010 by Heidi Noroozy

Tehran is hip. Really. For some, the city may conjure up images of stern-faced clerics and women enveloped in black chadors or demonstrators shaking their fists and yelling “Down with America” – or more recently “Down with the dictatorship”. For … Continue reading →

Posted in Persian culture, Tehran | Tagged , , , | 12 Comments

Picnics and Rain Gods

Posted on 04/02/2010 by Heidi Noroozy

Today is sizdah bedar, the thirteenth day of the Persian new year and the end of the two-week celebration of spring and renewal. The phrase doesn’t translate elegantly into English, but it means that on the thirteenth day of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Holidays, Persian culture | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Norooz in Gilan

Posted on 03/23/2010 by Heidi Noroozy

Iran’s Gilan Province stretches along the southern shore of the Caspian Sea. It is a green, fertile region where farmers grow tea, rice and silk worms. In one rice processing plant, where we stopped to buy bags of rice for … Continue reading →

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Cooking with Herbs

Posted on 03/21/2010 by Heidi Noroozy

Persian cuisine has a rich tradition of using herbs, not just for flavoring, but as main ingredients in a dish. The choices range from ghormeh sabzi – an herb, lamb and bean stew – to sabzi khordan, a plate of … Continue reading →

Posted in Persian culture, Recipes | Tagged | 3 Comments

Eid-e Shoma Mobarak

Posted on 03/20/2010 by Heidi Noroozy

Happy New Year! Today celebrates two important events: Persian New Year (Norooz) and the vernal equinox. All around the world, Iranians, Afghans and Zoroastrians of all nationalities will be ringing in the new year at precisely the same moment, regardless … Continue reading →

Posted in Holidays, Persian culture | Tagged | 4 Comments

The Seven Seens

Posted on 03/19/2010 by Heidi Noroozy

I put up our haft seen yesterday. Here is a picture of it: Haft seen translates as “seven seens”. Seen is the 15th letter of the Arabic alphabet, which is also the writing system used in Persian, and it sounds … Continue reading →

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Fire Festival

Posted on 03/17/2010 by Heidi Noroozy

Last night, we went in search of a bonfire to jump over to celebrate chahar shanbeh souri (see my last post), and this is what we found: I could have left my seven-league boots at home, but it was fun … Continue reading →

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Red Wednesday

Posted on 03/16/2010 by Heidi Noroozy

A few years ago, when I visited Iran on Persian New Year, I discovered the most exciting ritual of the holiday. It’s called chahar shanbeh souri, or Red Wednesday, and it is always celebrated during the night between the last … Continue reading →

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Shaking the House

Posted on 03/15/2010 by Heidi Noroozy

I’ve never understood why we ring in the new year in the middle of the winter, when the world is cold and sleeping. The Zoroastrians of ancient Persia had a better idea. They celebrated the new year on the vernal … Continue reading →

Posted in Persian culture | Tagged , | 4 Comments