Nature Day · Sizdah Bedar

/siz.ˈdæh be.ˈdær/

Culture of origin: Iranian · Persian holiday

Holiday sources: Bakhtiari · Georgian · Gilak · Iran · Lur · Mazandarani · Talysh · Zoroastrianism

Sizdah Bedar, "thirteen outdoors", falls on 13 Farvardin and closes the Nowruz holidays in Iran. Families picnic in parks and the countryside, and at the end of the day throw the sabzeh, the sprouted greens of the Haft-sin table, into running water; young single people first knot the blades, wishing for a partner. It is also a day for pranks, the "Lie of the Thirteenth". No history book directly mentions the celebration before the Qajar era.