All about Nowruz in Iran and ceremony

Nowruz (Persian: نوروز‎, IPA: [nouˈɾuːz], meaning "[The] New Day") is the name of the Persian/Iranian New Year. Nowruz marks the first day of spring or Equinox  as and the beginning of the year in the Persian calendar. It is celebrated on the day of the astronomical Northward equinox, which usually occurs on March 21 or the previous/following day depending on where it is observed.Read more

Festival of Rose and Rose Water

Every year during the second half of May, festival of Rose and Rose Water is being held in Kashan. Many people from different parts of the country and abroad visit Kashan, the hub of Mohammadi Rose in Iran.The season for picking rose and preparing rosewater is from early May to mid-June.
In early May, the scent of rose spreads over different areas of Kashan, such as Qamsar Joshqan Qali, Barzak and Niasar.The ceremony for making rosewater in Kashan attracts many tourists. Every day, some 80,000 people tour various cities of Kashan for this traditional ceremony.Read more

Chaharshanbe Suri

Chaharshanbe Suri (Persian: چهارشنبه ‌سوری‎) is a fire jumping festival, celebrated in Iran.
There are Zoroastrian religious significance attached to Chaharshanbeh Suri and it serves as a cultural festival for Iranian peoples: Persian Jews, Persian Muslims, Assyrians native to Iran, Persian Armenians, Kurds, Persian Bahai's and Persian Zoroastrians.Read more

Celebrating Yalda Night

Iranians around the world celebrate Yalda, which is one of the most ancient Persian festivals. The festival dates back to the time when a majority of Persians were followers of Zoroastrianism prior to the advent of Islam.On Yalda festival, Iranians celebrate the arrival of winter, the renewal of the sun and the victory of light over darkness.Considered the longest night of the year, Yalda eve is the night when ancient Iranians celebrated the birth of Mithra, the goddess of light.Yalda, which means birth, is a Syriac word imported into the Persian language. It is also referred to as Shab-e Chelleh, a celebration of winter solstice on December 21--the last night of fall and the longest night of the year.Ancient Persians believed that evil forces were dominant on the longest night of the year and that the next day belonged to the Lord of Wisdom, Ahura Mazda.Read more

Indigenous theatre Ta'ziyeh (mourning Rituals)

The nucleus of the Ta'ziyeh is the heroic martyrdom of Hussein, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad. After the death of the Prophet (11 A.H./A.D. 632) the still young Muslim community was faced with the problem of providing new leadership.Almost immediately the community found itself divided into two two bitterly opposed factions, those who espoused the ancient Arabic tradition of succession by election and those who desired succession by inheritance, through blood-relationship to the Prophet. The former are known as Sunnites; the latter as Shi'ites.Read more