Skip to main content

Christmas Countdown Local 2022 #5/25 - Glow

 

Nowruz celebration - artwork  from  Pinterest

In my quest to sight local festive celebrations, I didn't expect to find out about Nowruz which is the Persian word for 'new day', a celebration which marks the coming of Spring. 

Last week I visited Glow, a skin and beauty shop in  Elder Street, Lambton, the suburb where I live in Newcastle NSW. I had a treatment by my usual therapist, Samira. We started talking about Christmas and  I asked Samira about the most important day of the year in her background culture which is Iranian. She told me about Nowruz, which  has its Zoroastrian origins dating back 3,000 years. 

I knew very little about this celebration and its rituals... like Christmas and other Christian traditions , it is a time for families - good will, gift giving and feasting. 

 The 'haft seen' table is the crowning glory of Nowruz, and the backdrop for every photo shared in family group chats. Everyone will have their own version of the haft seen table, and who doesn't love a little friendly competitive energy around the best spread?
Traditionally, every haft seen table has at least one of each of these seven things that all start with 's' in Farsi: 

  • Apple (seeb) 
  • Vinegar (serkeh)
  • Dried fruit from an Oleaster tree (senjed)
  • Sumac (sumac)
  • Garlic (seer)
  • A sweet wheat-based pudding (samanu)
  • Grass or wheat sprouts (sabzeh)

Combined, the effect is like bearing witness to a kaleidoscopic, eclectic altar. Each item also carries symbolic meaning for the year ahead: garlic for good health; senjed for love; vinegar for patience. Most people also add things like coins as a good omen for wealth, along with hand-painted eggs, books of poetry, mirrors, candles, and goldfish  From .ABC Everyday 

Can you spot the items in the artwork above?



 

 Samira very willingly posed for a photo with Christmas decorations in the salon, although she doesn't follow the usual Christian  Christmas practices and even admitted she didn't really like Christmas cake . However,  it was a well known Australian supermarket brand of fruit cake. I reassured her that homemade Christmas  fruit cake tastes much better! 




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading my blog and please share your thoughts about my blog post by leaving a comment.Your comment won't appear immediately as comments are verified before publication in an effort to reduce the amount of spam appearing. Anonymous comments will not be published.

Popular posts from this blog

Christmas Countdown Characters #22

So close to Christmas and it's getting harder to find Christmas celebrities but today here's  a wily W character.  W is for Wilma . Yes I am Wilma but I am NOT today's Christmas celebrity.  Wilma the weasel  is the one of the main characters  in  T he Flight Before Christmas , a 2008 animated movie    and its sequel   Little Brother Big Trouble: A Christmas Adventure . The Flight Before Christmas centres around the problem of Niko, a small reindeer afraid of flying, and in search of his unknown father who is one of Santa's Flying Forces (that is, one of the eight main reindeer who pull Santa's sleigh)  Wilma is a street wise fearless singing weasel, who Niki and his surrogate squirrel father, Julius befriend while saving Santa from a wolf pack attack .   Long story short, the climax involves  Niko, Wilma and Julius killing the wolf leader, the Flying  Squad saving themselves in order to save Christmas, Niko...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is it a mutant? Is it an alien? It's an octopus - or is it?

Have you ever thought how strange a creature the octopus is?  This week's fascination started when I asked the question, "What colour is an octopus when it's underwater?"  The answer is  "any colour it wants to be " -  An octopus' coloration depends upon its surroundings.  An octopus possesses the ability to alter its coloration depending on its immediate environment. This defensive technique protects the animal from predators and entices prey to come close to the animal . ((from  https://www.reference.com/pets-animals/color-octopus-be94f74fcdc74ebe)    . Why did I want to know the colour of an octopus? Because I wanted to draw octopus tentacles as mermaid hair for my art journal! Then, I began to think it might be considered a little too weird and even perverse to give a mermaid octopus hair.... Facebook friends assured me that this was not so, citing Medusa and her snake hair as a precedent, and even one friend said that she thought it was l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Evolution of Message Stick Art Dolls

Message Stick Art Doll - stick, polymer clay, hand dyed & stencilled fabric with embroidery  My    message stick art dolls    have evolved over the last couple of years.  Why have I called these art dolls “Message Sticks” ?    I wanted to recreate a doll which was based on traditional techniques, so I have used ideas from a few different cultures. Many traditional dolls were made from wood - often wrapped with fibres.   In Egypt, several types of paddle dolls have been discovered in tombs in Egypt. The dolls are made of wood, flat, and constructed in a shape has led the form to be called a 'paddle doll'. The dolls seemingly follow a convention for the female figure, emphasizing the hips and hair. The wooden figures are usually painted with a geometric pattern of lines and dots. These patterns may reproduce tattos or ritual scaring in female Egyptian culture of the period or represent clothing or jewellery.  A fine exampl...
3 comments
Read more