Iranians in St. John's mark a 'new day' with festive celebration

Steam from saffron coloured rice drifts up and dances with the air hovering between more than 100 hands, clapping in rhythm.

There are smiles on all the faces in the Foran/Greene room of City Hall, which transformed into a little version of Persia Saturday night.

It's the celebration of Nowruz, or New Day.

"Nowruz is the Persian new year," said Marjan Boroojerdi, who emceed the evening with Navid Shekoufa.

"We celebrate the exact moment of the start of spring."

This year, the celebration in St. John's extended beyond the actual equinox, which happened two days earlier, and into Saturday evening, when the community could come together as one.

Shekoufa said Iranians have a thing for long celebrations.

"Imagine everywhere is shut down for 14 days," he said. "It's so fun, but at some point it gets frustrating as well, because everywhere is closed."

But he's quick to counter the half-hearted criticism.

"It's an amazing feeling," Shekoufa said. "We all left a piece of our heart back in our homeland. We sometimes miss where we come from, and having events like this … makes it a bit easier for us to deal with."

He's also quick to declare his love for the place he now calls home.

"Not for a split second I thought that I'm not a part of this community. I always felt at home."

Celebrated around the world

According to the United Nations, Nowruz is more than 3,000 years old and is celebrated by more than 300 million people around the world.

A piano player asks the crowd to sing along to a song by a popular Iranian artist, known simply as Farhad. A choir of voices singing in Farsi takes over the room.

On the tables are centerpieces of berries, fruits, garlic, vinegar, spices, sweets and sprouting grass — traditional adornments that symbolize ideas like prosperity, love and health.

Together they make up what is called a haft-sin (pronounced seen), a display which is essential to celebrating Nowruz.

The MUNIranians, a student group consisting of volunteers who help new Iranians transition to their new home, organized the celebration.

Most people were quick to point to one woman, however. Everyone was grateful for the hard work Fatima Sajadi put into this event.

Sajadi moved to St. John's from Iran two years ago to pursue computational chemistry, something she says she wouldn't have been able to study in Iran.

'They have time for each other'

Besides the sadness of leaving her family behind, she faced other challenges adapting to her new home.

"Everything is different," she said. "The culture is different, the food is different, the weather is different.

"[But] Newfoundland is a wonderful place because the people are friendly. They have time for each other."

Nowruz has similarities to the western Christmas and New Year season. For instance, a jolly old man with a long white beard, named Uncle Nowruz, brings gifts to all the children.

Sajadi remembers being a child and getting a pair of crisp white shoes for Nowruz, which she promptly put on before jumping into a puddle.

Her mother was not particularly pleased with the decision at the time, but Sajadi can laugh about it now.

Put on your dancing shoes

Joshua Barnes from Conception Bay South met members of the Iranian community through his work in engineering and data science.

While watching a video of a traditional Persian dance with his Iranian friends, Barnes boasted he would be able to perform the dance with no trouble.

So they told him to put his dancing shoes where his mouth is — and he did.

"I thought [it was] for fun, I didn't realize how serious it was," he said. "They take it very seriously."

However, Barnes wasn't overly nervous about the performance.

"There's not much pressure to get everything perfect. Everyone is super-friendly and welcoming. It's a really wonderful community."

Along with four other people, Barnes performed a traditional Bandari dance, which mimes the motions of fisherman on the Persian Gulf.

Hoda Rajabi, who performed the dance alongside Barnes and three of her other friends, studied human genetics at Memorial after moving to St. John's in 2013.

One of her favourite parts of the celebrations actually comes on the Tuesday evening before Nowruz.It's called Chaharshanbe Suri.

"We all get together, family and friends, we make a huge fire and we all dance around it," Rajabi said.

"The idea is to put anything bad that happened in the past year, mentally, throw that in fire and get rid of it."

Participants then jump over the fire, leave the past behind, and look toward the New Year.

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