Afghans gather to celebrate Afghan New Year (Nowruz) in Kabul, March 20, 2012.Reuters File 
A table set with decorations is seen at Iranian restaurant Abshar in Dubai March 20, 2013 to celebrate the Iranian New Year.Reuters File
Nowruz is a traditional Iranian festival of spring celebrated as the Iranian New Year as per the Solar Hijri Calendar. The New Year observance, however, now is not limited to Iran alone.
Though the tradition has its origin in Iran, today Nowruz is celebrated as a New Year festival by around 300 million people worldwide, with traditions and rituals particularly strong in the Balkans, the Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions, the Caucasus, Central and South Asia, and the Middle East.
Iraq, India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan are some of the countries where the festival is hugely popular. Even United Nationals has proclaimed it as an official International observance because it promotes peace and solidarity.
Nowruz or Noruz means 'new day or new daylight' as per the Hijri culture. Noruz is celebrated either on 20 March or 21 March based on the timing of the equinox.
As per the UN calender of events this year, Nowruz will be observed on 21 March. However, those following the Solar Hejri calendar will celebrate Nowruz on 20 March in United States, while those in Iran will be celebrating it on 21 March.
The celebration of Noruz is at least 3,000 years old and rooted in the rituals of the Zoroastrian religion. The Zoroastrian Parsis of India celebrate Nowruz twice in a year -- first during the vernal equinox in March referred as the Fasli New Year and second in July or August, depending upon whether they follow the Kadmi or the Shahenshahi calendar.
Among the followers of the Baha'i faith, a religion with its origin in Iran, Nowruz is celebrated not only as a new year, but for them the celebrations begin on 21 March irrespective of what day the equinox falls.
Nowruz Wishes and Messages
May everyday of the new year glow with new cheer and happiness for you and your family. Nowruz Moobarak!
Let's make our Nowruz celebration a happier one by spending it together. Wish you a more than ever Happy Nowruz!
Hope this Nowruz brings lots of LOVE and WARMTH for you and your loved ones...Do not hate anyone as we have got the LIFE to LOVE and NOT to HATE others. Happy Nowruz!
May the coming year take you on the path to glory where all your endeavors become glorious and your life becomes a success story. Happy Nowruz!
Wishing you an year that marks the beginning of remarkable era of success and happiness in your life. Happy Noruz 1392!
Nowruz Quotes and Sayings
An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.
Bill Vaughn
We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.
Edith Lovejoy
Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go.
Brooks Atkinson
Hope
Smiles from the threshold of the year to come,
Whispering 'it will be happier'...
Alfred Tennyson
The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year, but rather that we should have a new soul.
G.K. Chesterton
Nowruz Greetings:
Here are few of the Traditional ways of greeting on a Persian New Year –
- Happy New Year -- "Nowruz Mobarak"
- Wishing a prosperous New Year -- "Nowruz Pirooz"
- Wishing another 100 Happy New Years -- "Sad Saal Bin Saal-ha".
