Nowruz is Iran’s national New Year. The people of this
land have celebrated it. The celebration has found different from one place
to another, but everywhere there is the sense of change and imminent burgeoning
of nature.
There have been specific rituals for the Nowruz of which
only two is exercised now. These include Aroose Gole, Babe Chare, Takom Chi,
Khers Bani, Antar Raghsani, itinerant entertainment, bonfire , Charshanbeh
Suri, Khaneh Damooji, Khane Pazani, and Barreh Gardani, researcher Mohammad Boshra
says.
These special traditional rituals have been the Guilak’s
(people of Guilan) ways of anticipating, welcoming, and appreciating the
spring.
Nowruzi Khani is a practice where a few elderly men grab a
lantern and twigs of hedge, going house to house and chanting songs that
herald the coming of the spring.
Aroos Goleh is a show starring a giant, an old man, a
bride, and a maid. The giant stands for the winter, the old man for nature,
the bride for the spring, and the maid, named Gol Khanom, for the bridesmaid.
The giant tries to flee with the bride, while the old man
aided by Gol Khanom fights it and wins.
Another researcher of Guilan ethnology Freydoon Nozad who
has so far written 11 books on the area and its culture says that in the
Barreh Gardani and Khaneh Damooji rituals there is a good-omened animal or
person that brings joy and prosperity to homes.
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