Nowruz, the spring festival celebrated this Sunday in many countries of the ancient Persian Empire and far beyond, is celebrated at the precise moment of the spring equinox by more than 300 million people. Dating back thousands of years, this holiday is of interest to anthropology for what it reveals about the patterns that underlie human traditions.
This Sunday, March 20, 2022 at 3:33:26 p.m. precisely, in universal time, hundreds of millions of people around the world will celebrate “Nowrouz”. This will be the case in Iran, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and also in part of India, among others. How to explain the universality of this pagan festival at the time of monotheistic religions?
Salvatore d’Onofrio is a professor of anthropology at the University of Palermo, and a member of the laboratory of social anthropology at the Collège de France, founded by Claude Lévi-Strauss. Four years ago, this Italian specialist published a book dedicated to Nowruz, one of the most ancestral festivals of Humanity. Entitled The Morning of the Gods. From Persian Nowruz to Christian Easter (2018, Édition Mimésis), he demonstrates that the rites practiced during the Persian New Year, which reach their apotheosis at the precise moment of the spring equinox, are closely linked to patterns of thought that bind human societies Through time.
A strange coincidence
“ I discovered the existence of the Nowruz holiday almost by chance, in 2015 “says the anthropologist. At that time he was reading The Gardens of Adonis of Marcel Detienne, a great Hellenist. The author describes festivals taking place in Greece in the 5th century BC. Athenian women celebrated the god Adonis through ceremonies that took place on terraces and during which green shoots, symbols of renewal, had a central place.
However, these plants are at the center of rituals in the Mediterranean, as in southern Italy or in French Provence, in Sardinia or Lebanon, but also and above all in Iran and in many other regions that have been part of the Persian Empire. They are one of the main symbols of Nowruz. Intrigued by these similarities, Salvatore d’Onofrio will approach the Iranian diaspora to study the pagan festival: ” I did not try to retrace the possible routes of these shoots from an origin. I rather tried to compare the different rituals of these shoots from the Iranian tradition where they are present everywhere despite religious differences. »
Two weeks of celebration
Nowruz is a very codified holiday. The eve of the last Wednesday of the year before the vernal equinox takes place on Sharshanbe Suri : we jump over fires to purify ourselves. A tradition that resonates with the fires of Saint John. ” In Paris, for the Sharshanbe Suri, groups of children banged on pans and went to people to ask them for cakes or coins. It almost makes you think of Halloween! smiles the anthropologist.
In homes, the day before Nowruz, a table is set with seven elements, called Haft Sin. These are sprouted seeds of legumes or cereals, called the sabzeh and symbolizing rebirth, as well as six other items that also begin with the letter S of the Persian alphabet: garlic, apples, vinegar, gold coins, depending on the region. Nowruz ends thirteen days after the equinox, with the Sizdah Bedar, a picnic. The shoots are then thrown into the water of a lake, a river or the sea, to symbolize the beginning of a new cycle.
Multiple echoes in the world
These sprouts, so symbolic, caught Salvatore d’Onofrio’s ears. During his research, he realized that they were found everywhere. In ancient Greece, as Marcel Detienne has shown, where in addition to shoots, fire is also present on the roof terraces, as certain Iranians do for the Sharshanbe Suri. ” We also found in a village in Sardinia, in Barbagia, this gesture of throwing the shoots into the sea after having transported them on land. “, he marvels.
In Paris, while concentrating on the Iranian diaspora, the anthropologist takes part in another celebration: that of the feast of Ganesh, important for the Indians and which takes place in August. ” This ritual with fire and shoots, we find it in Paris. The groups of women who parade for the feast of Ganesh have on their heads a basket carrying sprouts and fire… It is quite extraordinary to see that the same gestures are repeated in the French capital, the same ones that existed in the 5th century before our era in Greece and among the Persians of all times. Traditions spread. »
The more the anthropologist digs, the more the symbol returns: Claude Lévi-Strauss evokes the use of bean sprouts among the Hopi, Indians of Arizona, for Rosh Hashanah; every year, Jewish women cultivate sprouted seeds; the men of medieval families in the West twirled shoots on the heads of their children which were then thrown into the river. ” These examples highlight that despite their differences, men do the same thing and show the importance of traditions as operational patterns of thought. sums up the anthropologist. The importance of renewal, of agriculture, of birth, of the cycle of life… the interpretations of the symbol are multiple.
And what of the number 7, which is found in many beliefs around the world, including Nowruz? No question of falling into hazy theories, but rather trying to imagine why this figure influences popular beliefs so much. The anthropologist has his hypothesis: My theory is that this fascination for the 7 comes from generations. In the majority of cases, only seven generations are known. Ours, those above us, and those below: father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and daughter, granddaughter, great-granddaughter. It is a universal thing that would explain why all the peoples of the world have been inspired by this figure. »
An influential tradition still little studied
Nowruz also shows the normative force that tradition can have. Among those who have adopted it, the Iranian New Year is immutable. The festival, even though it is pagan, has always resisted the pressures of religions. In Iran, the regime of the Islamic Republic tried to make it disappear because it did not appear in the Koran. It’s a waste of time: the Iranians always celebrate it. ” Nowruz is celebrated in Iran by Sunni and Shiite Muslims, by Christians, by Jews, regardless of any religion. », describes the Italian anthropologist.
In the diasporas, Nowruz also takes on a special meaning. A way to celebrate your culture, while being aware that the country is far away. This is what struck Salvatore d’Onofrio the most when he was studying Nowruz in Paris: ” The party mixes with melancholy, you touch it, you feel it. I have participated in Sizdah Bedar several times and the expression of joy mixed with the sadness of being immigrants, who sometimes cannot even return to their country, is very moving. »
Nowrouz, (or “Nowrouz”, “Navruz”, “Nauryz”, “Nawrouz”, “Nevruz”, “Nooru”, depending on the country where you are), by its power to evoke a common imagination, has managed to survive for thousands of years the upheavals of past societies, inspiring and being inspired by multiple influences. The complexity of the patterns that underlie it makes it an important subject of study, but still little explored by anthropologists, even if Salvatore d’Onofrio hopes that one day one of his colleagues will take over from his work.
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