Nowruz

/now.ˈruːz/

Culture of origin: Iranian · Persian holiday

Holiday sources: Azerbaijani · Bakhtiari · Baloch · Georgian · Gilak · Iran · Kurdish · Lur · Mazandarani · Qashqai · Talysh · Turkmen · Yarsan (Ahl-e Haqq) · Zoroastrianism

Nowruz, "New Day", is New Year's Day of the Iranian calendar, set at the March equinox and celebrated across West and Central Asia, the Caucasus and beyond. Its roots lie in Zoroastrianism, and the Shahnameh credits its founding to the mythical king Jamshid. Families gather around the Haft-sin table to await the exact moment of the equinox. In 2010 the UN General Assembly recognized the International Day of Nowruz. The Yarsan hold a Jam at the moment the year turns at Sultan Sahak's shrine in Perdiwar, Hawraman. Iran's Georgians of Fereydunshahr keep the first-footer at Nowruz: the menkle, the year's first visitor, whose footprints in the snow open the new year, as the mekvle does in Georgia.