Tehran, YJC. The New Year in Iran comes with a host of observations. Seeing folks is one.
The Iranian New Year will start March 21 at the Vernal
equinox. The following 12 days are called Nowruz, literally meaning "the new
day”. Besides doing a lot in preparation for the Nowruz in cleaning the house
and buying new clothes and furniture as well as arranging the special New Year
table "Haft Seen” with a lot symbolically representing beliefs and a lot more
just there to be eaten, Iranians pay visit to folks.
Families usually start their round of visits to near and far
relatives by going to the elderly, usually the wife and husbands parents. Then they
continue their tour, which extends through the 12 days of holiday, by seeing
brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, etc., and in turn by staying home for others
to come visit them.
The visit consists mainly of getting to know how everyone
does, eating special things prepared for the occasion, ranging from fruits to
nuts and to the ritual Samanu, and to the part which especially interests the
young, which is giving presents. It is usually so that the host or the elder
relative gives gifts of cash to the young. The cash is called "eedee”. Kids usually
make a lot of these gifts which then they use to buy something they have long
wanted to have, the financial independence giving them some freedom from the
choices their parents make them in buying things.