March 20-Happy Persian New Year!

March 20th, 2009. Published under conundrums. No Comments.

No Ruz eggs given to me by my aunt.

They sit in a glass jar all year long

in my living room, guarded by an equally colorful

porcelain hen and a wooden rooster .

My aunt, Tita Rory, used to work for an elderly Persian man. She learned about No Ruz from his family. It is a celebration of the spring equinox, a very old tradition, older than Christianity or Islam.  It originated with Zoroastrianism. In West LA, where many Persians (Iranians) live, this is still being kept alive. They decorate their houses with painted  eggs and other symbolic stuff.  For the past three years my aunt has been perfecting the art of egg painting. When the holiday comes around she sells her eggs at a market for 10-12 dollars each. This earns her an income of around a thousand. Not bad, huh!

March 20 is the official first day of spring on my calendar. No Ruz means new life. The death of winter. Life begins anew. That’s why they have eggs. They also have fish and other fertility symbols. Ever eaten a bihod, that  long whitish/yellowish thing that you sometimes find inside a fish stomach? Like it?  Eeiow! That sandy texture in your mouth are hundreds and hundreds of minute eggs. You can never be more fertile than a fish.

I wonder if they have bunnies.  I wouldn’t be so surprised if they do.  Bunnies can be fertility symbols, too. They’re very  prolific.  Ever watched Basic Instinct? Michael Douglas had a line there that went, “We fuck like rabbits.” If there are bunnies in No Ruz, then it’s Easter celebrated at an earlier date and  under a different religion.

No Ruz: celebrated in spring, death of winter, rebirth of life, fertility, eggs, fish

Easter: celebrated in spring, death of Jesus, resurrection, rebirth, eggs, bunnies

See the parallel concepts? FREAKY!!!!!! Sometimes I wonder (with fear in my heart) if the religion I have isn’t just a revamped version of something much more earthy and ancient. What a laugh it would be if it were. Here we are — christians who think that we posses the TRUTH. One seed of doubt can lead you down the path of skepticism. Is Jesus real? Is there a God? You don’t want to go there.  Happy Persian New Year, everyone!