The story of the Iranian new year, Nowruz, and why its themes of renewal and healing matter

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Pardis Mahdavi, Arizona State University

(THE CONVERSATION) As the days grow longer and the flowers start to bloom, my 7-year-old gets excited and exclaims, “Nowruz is coming.”

Nowruz – or “new day” in English – is the Iranian new year. Celebrated at the exact moment of the spring equinox, this is a secular festival with roots that go back over 3,000 years. It was shaped by people of the Zoroastrian faith, believed to be the world’s oldest religion.

An Iranian American anthropologist, I have spent much of my life studying my ancestral culture. Festivals like Nowruz have helped me and my children connect with the Earth and our traditions – and much more now than ever before.

The story of Nowruz

The celebration of Nowruz dates back to at least the 11th century A.D. In the Shahnameh – or “Book of Kings” – a text that dates to the first century, the story of King Jamshid is told as part of the Nowruz origin story.

King Jamshid, the fourth king in an imagined dynasty, is introduced as the kindest and most knowledgeable ruler of Persia, the region that stretched from what is modern Turkey to Pakistan. Jamshid is referred to in Zoroastrian texts from the first century as well.

The Shahnameh tells the story of a king who...