Mon, 10 Apr 2006
NEWS 2 - TEHRAN
Dear All
WELLLLLLLLLLLLLL the nine days since I arrived have been whizzing by sooooo quickly ... zabane farsi (Persian language) is coming along!!! And also finally I feel like my feet are on the ground ... after all the topsy-turviness of getting everything in order in Athens, the stress, the RACE!!! Finally I have discovered that when everything is floating around in a fog, blurriness of everything - visa-anticipation, travel back and forth and here and there, exhaustion, being on the other side of the world, etc - GRAVITY is the great organizing principle ... AT LEAST things - and me - can be located on... the ground!
It's old news by now, since the end of the celebrations for the Persian New year are just about winding down by now ... But from last Sunday, April 2, here goes ...
Sizdah Bedar is a wonderful celebration, representing the final achieveable stage of catharsis, launching the New Year with clean house, clean consciousness, the release of anything that could interfere with the unfoldment of GOOD. It is a picnic, an outdoor fest in the fresh spring air (a universal human event to be sure, only with a different twist, depending on cultural orientation ...)
Families gathering together, eating and talking and drinking tea, playing backgammon and throwing balls, parading around, leisurely, jubilantly! We walked with Nima's family to a park ... a visual feast. Tents set up on the lawn, children running and skipping for joy, vendors selling ice cream, coca cola (I love seeing that written in Persian script!) and all sorts of amusements for this ancient traditional time of celebration.
At the beginning of Nowruz (New Year) every home is decked out sumptuously with special representations of nature and renewal, including a clump of earth with new grass. The close of the two-week holiday is Sizdah Bedar - which means "throwing out the 13" - considered a number of less-than-the-best fortune. The final gesture is the throwing of the clump of grassy earth into a river, where it can be swept off into oblivion. Of course in the middle of Tehran or any other big city, it is not always so easy to find a river - so as we strolled through the day, these tossed off, fuzzy green remnants could be found all over the neighbourhood ... in water channels that weave through the streets, on top of newspaper stands, car hoods, park benches, a truly lovely sight, and a wonderful reaffirmation of the ultimate ground of Nature.
Moving along through this wonderful sense of unfoldment, we walked around the old American Embassy, a sharp contrast to the gentle joy of the day. The compound is walled off and full of trees, rare in the area, and HUGE - seems like one entire city block.
Next attention-grabber, very nearby on our New Year stroll, we came by the Greek Embassy and Orthodox church next door. It made me feel very happy to know where the Greeks are, here in Persia. Having just arrived from Athens, center of the world, I felt uplifted and anchored at the same time.
We returned to Nima's house and had a delicious dinner with the family and a guest who is an expert in the history of Iranian art and architecture. Fascinating converstaion, which eventually turned into singing and music ... New Year off to certainly a very, very wonderful start!
OK think I better close here for now ... I smell another delicious dinner on its way. Of course so many wonderful things have been happening since last Sunday ... well, more news soon!
Much love to all, and HAPPPPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
Rowan
NEWS 2 - TEHRAN
Dear All
WELLLLLLLLLLLLLL the nine days since I arrived have been whizzing by sooooo quickly ... zabane farsi (Persian language) is coming along!!! And also finally I feel like my feet are on the ground ... after all the topsy-turviness of getting everything in order in Athens, the stress, the RACE!!! Finally I have discovered that when everything is floating around in a fog, blurriness of everything - visa-anticipation, travel back and forth and here and there, exhaustion, being on the other side of the world, etc - GRAVITY is the great organizing principle ... AT LEAST things - and me - can be located on... the ground!
It's old news by now, since the end of the celebrations for the Persian New year are just about winding down by now ... But from last Sunday, April 2, here goes ...
Sizdah Bedar is a wonderful celebration, representing the final achieveable stage of catharsis, launching the New Year with clean house, clean consciousness, the release of anything that could interfere with the unfoldment of GOOD. It is a picnic, an outdoor fest in the fresh spring air (a universal human event to be sure, only with a different twist, depending on cultural orientation ...)
Families gathering together, eating and talking and drinking tea, playing backgammon and throwing balls, parading around, leisurely, jubilantly! We walked with Nima's family to a park ... a visual feast. Tents set up on the lawn, children running and skipping for joy, vendors selling ice cream, coca cola (I love seeing that written in Persian script!) and all sorts of amusements for this ancient traditional time of celebration.
At the beginning of Nowruz (New Year) every home is decked out sumptuously with special representations of nature and renewal, including a clump of earth with new grass. The close of the two-week holiday is Sizdah Bedar - which means "throwing out the 13" - considered a number of less-than-the-best fortune. The final gesture is the throwing of the clump of grassy earth into a river, where it can be swept off into oblivion. Of course in the middle of Tehran or any other big city, it is not always so easy to find a river - so as we strolled through the day, these tossed off, fuzzy green remnants could be found all over the neighbourhood ... in water channels that weave through the streets, on top of newspaper stands, car hoods, park benches, a truly lovely sight, and a wonderful reaffirmation of the ultimate ground of Nature.
Moving along through this wonderful sense of unfoldment, we walked around the old American Embassy, a sharp contrast to the gentle joy of the day. The compound is walled off and full of trees, rare in the area, and HUGE - seems like one entire city block.
Next attention-grabber, very nearby on our New Year stroll, we came by the Greek Embassy and Orthodox church next door. It made me feel very happy to know where the Greeks are, here in Persia. Having just arrived from Athens, center of the world, I felt uplifted and anchored at the same time.
We returned to Nima's house and had a delicious dinner with the family and a guest who is an expert in the history of Iranian art and architecture. Fascinating converstaion, which eventually turned into singing and music ... New Year off to certainly a very, very wonderful start!
OK think I better close here for now ... I smell another delicious dinner on its way. Of course so many wonderful things have been happening since last Sunday ... well, more news soon!
Much love to all, and HAPPPPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
Rowan
posted by Rowan Storm at 12:07 PM
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