Baku Sun, 18 March 2005

BAKU - Azerbaijan, best known as the land of fires, is - according to the British Museum's scientific team - also the site of the Gardens of Eden. When Sumerians - the first Turkic civilization, who rose as far back as 5,000 years BC - started preparations for New Year's celebrations, they sent envoys to the 'Gardens,' for sacred wheat seeds. It was strongly believed that sprouted wheat from the 'Gardens' would help to cultivate and gather bounteous harvest in the New Year that - according to Sumer augurs - comes into its own with the flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates, the crucial sources of fresh water in the overwhelmingly arid Mesopotamia [modern day Iraq].

The tradition has been kept alive: Novruz, the most cherished holiday in modern day Azerbaijan, also remains a deep-rooted tradition in Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and Central Asian nations, including Kazakhstan. Though, nowadays, there is no need to travel to Azerbaijan for sacral seeds, as - again according to British Museum scientists - the Gardens have sunk into oblivion, under what presently is known as the city of Tabriz, the centuries-old 'custodian' of the Azeri heritage.

Novruz [the word meaning 'new day' in Farsi] marks the exhilaration of nature. The holiday, however, has other meanings too, as it has inherited much from all major cultures that celebrated it in the areas stretching out from the Balkans to the Altais, the original realms of the Turkic- and Finn-Ugor-language nations.

At present the holiday is generally accepted as the celebration of the Vernal Equinox (Solstice) - the New Year in modern day Iran.

Azerbaijani researchers admit that the coming of Novruz means a switch to a new calendar year, as on the day of the Spring Equinox - March 21 - the day and night level up in length, and - contrary to the Autumn Equinox - this is accompanied by the awakening of Nature.

Indeed, at its core, Novruz symbolizes the triumph of the good, winning against the evil forces of darkness that are represented by the Winter. Novruz is the poin, at which the presence of the cold Winter finally begins to retrieve, unable to resist to the commencement of the lively and life-giving Spring.

As implied by its timing and natural significance, Novruz is a time of renewal that is associated with the rebirth, cleanliness and newness. To the same point, trees start to shoot, flowers come out, with arable lands being ploughed. Hailing a new lease of life to the Nature, people clean their homes and exteriors. And, of course, there is a quaint old tradition linked to wardrobe renewal and paying visits to the elders to congratulate them.

Meanwhile, it was a stunning endurance and the power of survival that have managed to retain the significance of Novruz for milleniums: needless to say, the tradition has survived three religions, Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam. Though there are almost no followers of Zoroastrian religion in modern day Azerbaijan, Christian Utis [Udins] still celebrate Novruz, jumping over fires - a sign of cleansing themselves for the New Year - and dying eggs, as their Moslim compatriots do.

After the Arab conquest, there were attempts to attach a religious importance to Novruz, but to no avail: Nozruv is celebrated on the same fixed day of yearly solar calendar, which lasts 365 to 366 days, while the dates of Islamic holidays are switched from year to year, because of the application of lunar calendar, which provides for 354 days for a year.

Paradoxically, four centuries after the rise of Islam in modern day Iran and Azerbaijan, the importance of the sacred holiday rose yet higher. In his 13 March article dedicated to Novruz celebrations in Baku, in 1914, Mahammad Amin Rasulzade, one of the founders of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918-1920), praised the order by Seljuk sultan Jalaladdin Malikshah [ruled since 1072 to 1092] to celebrate Novruz as state holiday marking the coming of the New Year. It should be noted that when Azerbaijan came under Russian and then Soviet rule, New Year's Day was introduced as January 1st, a custom which continues to this day.

Fortunately, further attempts by the Soviets, whose veto on celebrating Novruz was broken in 1967 [but resumed shortly after, in 1969], failed. Indeed, it was impossible to stop the turn of life, erasing the awakening of Nature from the memory of the commonalty.

Some useful information and tips for Novruz:

1. Celebrations begin four weeks before the actual day of Novruz. These four weeks - exactly four Tuesdays - each signify four different elements and called su charshambasi (water Tuesday), meaning that water give life to breathing, od charshambasi (fire Tuesday), which is noted by lighting candles, torpag charshambasi (soil Tursday), which requires sorting out of wheat or barley seeds to sprout, and yel charshambasi or ilakhir charshambasi (wind Tuesday or year-end Tuesday), meaning that Spring finally overcomes Winter.
2. The rite of samani (sprouted wheat seeds), which is associated with symbolizing the renewal of nature, which covers in green after grey, sometimes snowy, winter, and the cult of plants. According to late Prof. Aziza Jafarzada, a great literary scholar and prominent figure in folklore studies in Azerbaijan, samani decorates festive table for 12 days. On the 13th day, it is put down on a pure water stream (rivers or seacoast), as samani is a symbol of abundance and bread. This tradition partly still exists in Iran, where on the 13th day after the Novruz holiday, many people fill city parks or go to the green to have a picnic there.
3. Pakhlava, shakarbura and gatlama - the widely known three sacral sweets, are cooked to serve at festive tables. A diamond-shaped pakhlava symbolizes the feminine origin, shakarbura is reminiscent of wheat seed, while flaky-to-the-center gatlama implies yally, a national Azeri dance, which symbolizes unity and is performed by dozens of dancers, who divide into several groups that converge in the center. According to Tahir Amiraslanov, the head of the National Cookery Center, in the past, there was also baked kulich, a hill-shaped sweet symbolizing the masculine origin. "However, with the rise of Islam in Novruz-celebrated lands, this tradition has been forgotten, and is only kept alive in Russia, where kuliches are cooked for the Orthodox East," Amiraslanov told Baku Sun.
4. The rite of downing pouches (torba sallama), which implies the obligation to share festive sweets with everyone. This rite is presently carried by children or youth, who like to get as much Novruz dainties as they can have. Today, many simply plant pouches at doorsteps, as they know that the tradition obliges the 'hosts' to put something sweet in pouches. If someone overeats, he/she will be named bayrambayi, and nearest and dearest simply smile at the lack of their will.
5. Festive table serving. The menu varies from region to region, but for Novruz night, seven meals are a must: the table is set with at least seven dishes or items, all of which begin with the sound of "s" in Farsi or Azeri. In addition to samani, these might be water (su), apple (sib), ear of wheat (sunbul), clock (saat), milk (sud), sujug (sausage-shaped sweet filled with nuts or chestnuts), etc. Never set the table with onion (soghan), vinegar (sirka) or garlic (sir), Prof, Jafarzada warned, adding that spicy, bitter or sour meals should be excluded from the festive table.