Persians celebrate New Year

Toronto Star ^ | 3/16/06 | NICHOLAS KEUNG

[freedom44]

Under the azure dome, before Islam's arrival in the 7th Century, the Persians, in what is today's Iran, began battling evil with fire.

Despite Islamic traditionalists' dislike of "superstitious" ritual, the practice of purifying one's body and soul has survived in Iran and thrived into the present-day Festival of Fire.

The annual celebration is the one secular event — probably beside national soccer victories — that is celebrated by every Iranian regardless of religious affiliations.

Last night, instead of leaping over bonfires, Toronto's 100,000-strong Iranian Canadian community ushered in the festival with fireworks at Sunnybrook Park and Mel Lastman Square, heralding the arrival of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, next Monday.

"This is the festival that no one would forget," said event co-organizer Mohammad Sheikholeslami. "None of us believes we can drive away the evil and bad luck by jumping over a fire. What's important for us is to get the whole community out and keep our traditions alive."

When Richmond Hill realtor Hamid Gharajeh first arrived in Toronto in 1987, only 80 people attended Canada's inaugural Festival of Fire. Last year, that number grew to 14,000.

"The community is getting bigger over the years. It's just not possible to set up fire in a park any more," he explained. He said the festival is a national event that everyone takes part in.

In addition to housecleaning and stocking up on new clothes and goodies, all families follow the festival with the setting up of Haft Seen, a table displayed with seven prosperous items from a longer list. The items can include wheat or barley growing in a dish (for rebirth), sweet pudding (affluence), dried fruit of the jujube tree (love), garlic (medicine), apples (beauty and health), sumac berries (the colour of the sunrise), vinegar (age and patience), hyacinth (the coming of spring) and coins (prosperity).

The festivities end on the 13th day with a big picnic when people throw the wheat from Haft Seen into running water, symbolizing a new cycle of life.

This year, the community is spicing up Nowruz with the three-day Festival of Under the Azure Dome, the archetypal beginning of all Persian stories, equivalent to the "once upon a time" in English literature.

Touted as the largest Persian New Year's festival outside Iran, where businesses are closed for five days and schools are on holiday for two weeks, the free festival (except for the concerts) begins Friday showcasing Persian music, dances, theatre productions, traditional puppets, poetry, arts and movies at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre.

The New Year festival, also celebrated in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkey and India, features a symphony orchestra, led by renowned conductor Mehdi Javanfar.

"Under the blue sky, we are all human beings no matter to what race and religion we belong," noted event organizer Mehrdad Ariannejad of the Iranian Association at the University of Toronto. "We all live under one roof and embrace one another."

Most Iranian Canadians fled to Canada after the 1979 revolution, when religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini overthrew King Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi's pro-west regime and declared Iran an Islamic republic.

Like other groups, they have their divides, which have been gradually thawing since the December 2003 Bam earthquake that brought the community together to raise funds and help the victims. The tragedy killed 43,000 people and injured another 30,000.

[freedom44]

[fanfan]

The festivities end on the 13th day with a big picnic when people throw the wheat from Haft Seen into running water, symbolizing a new cycle of life.

Hmmm.

[sionnsar]

the arrival of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, next Monday.

Ping

[Alexander Rubin]

Happy new year, free Iranians!

[DallasMike]

May they celebrate the next New Year as a free country!

Stingray:  Conservative Christian News and Commentary

[GMMAC]

"... Toronto's 100,000-strong Iranian Canadian community ..."

The Toronto red Star likes nothing better than to lie about and/or grossly exaggerate any alleged demographic & financial information that serves to advance its relentless multicultural far left agenda.

Aside from examples like the supposed millions & millions of dollars the Star habitually claims - without any real foundation! - are brought into Toronto's economy annually by publicly-funded "celebrations" of sexual deviancy & Caribbean based 'gangsta culture', according to census info from the City of Toronto's own website there probably aren't "100,000" Iranians in all of Canada much less within "the mega-City of evil" alone.

As further confirmation of the red Star's agenda-driven exaggeration and to provide even more up-to-date statistics refuting same, a debate on the Iranian pandering NOWRUZ DAY ACT, 2006 took place in Ontario's Legislature on February 23 2006 during which no politician of any political stripe, citing demographical information from a host of sources, ever came even close to claiming anything like there being "100,000" Iranians calling Toronto home.

[freedom44]

What do Canadians of Iranian descent have to do with sexual deviance and gangsta culture?

[GMMAC]

Living in the States, you've likely not seen rabid, aggressively imposed multiculturalism as practiced by the red Star & Canada's Liberal Party first-hand.

Their methodology is to exaggerate the size of national and/or cultural groups, buy their electoral support with public funds & ultimately play them off against both each other & the majority of society based upon a divide & conquer strategy.

Trust me, Canada's leftists could easily give your 'Rats lessons.

"sexual deviance and gangsta culture" were mentioned solely in the context of the public funding which both Toronto's annual week-long "Caribbana" & "Gay Pride" festivities receive & the lies the red Star spews - both in terms of crowd sizes attracted & monies brought in to the local economy - in order to justify/rationalize both its black & gay client groups receiving these tax dollars.

I have no problem with anyone celebrating their heritage - both my wife & I happen to come from national backgrounds which do - but, neither of us feel the government should pay for same & object to a "newspaper" which constantly lies to promote the contrary.

Under state-sanctioned multiculturalism up here, everyone's encouraged to be a hyphenated something or other and we plainly have nothing but little sense of national identity & disunity to show for it.

Yanks have the right idea:
You're an American first ... and whatever else a distant second.

[Unrepentant VN Vet]

"Yanks have the right idea:
You're an American first ... and whatever else a distant second."

NYSlime et al sure spend a lot of time undermining that philosophy, among others.....

[proud American in Canada]

Hmmm.

Hmmm, indeed... :)

[freedom44]

Thanks for clarification.

[GMMAC]

You're welcome.

Just to make my position perfectly clear:
I have no problem with people coming to either of our nations, from anywhere in the world, provided they're willing to strive to be good citizens and to sincerely embrace our accepted beliefs while renouncing any others common to their country of origin which are contrary to them.

If your didn't see this article, "A question of loyalty", which I posted on FR earlier this month, it may set out this premise better than I have.

I have nothing against former Iranians or any other immigrant group. Although my family's been in North America for a long time, my wife's family came here post WW2 to escape communism & I'm as proud of & respect my late father-in-law at least as much as any member of my own.