Noruz, my Mother’s Day
My mother was doing exactly what Noruz was about – being Iranian

March 22, 2006
iranian.com

Noruz, or the Iranian New Year, was an integral part of my childhood growing up in the United States.  Living outside of Iran made it somewhat difficult to celebrate Noruz as a national occurrence.  How could it have been a national holiday for us when only Iranians celebrated it in America and we still had to go to school while our parents had work responsibilites? 

As one of its newest immigrant communities marked the occasion, the rest of America was oblivious to this joyous occasion.  Had we been in Iran during Noruz then it would have been a national holiday for us because we would have experienced it with all of Iran.    In other words, Noruz was a private affair for my family since we weren’t in Iran.  Our nationally celebrated New Year’s Day was on January 1st with the rest of America.  Because we experienced Noruz abroad as a family affair, it wasn't New Year's Day to me but rather it was Mother's Day.

It’s easy for Noruz to make me think about my mother because she was the reason why it was observed in my household.  She was the one who meticulously set up the haft seen table.  She was the one who prepared the sabzeh, which I loved to watch grow over the over the weeks leading up to the day we tied it into knots and dropped it into a stream.  It was my mother that tried so patiently to get my brother and I to memorize the meaning of each of the haft seen elements.  As a child I didn’t really care what they symbolized but I loved the gold fish the most. 

Some years I’d help my mother set up the table and paint the eggs, but as I got older I wasn’t as helpful.  Nevertheless, I always looked forward to a completely set haft seen around Noruz time and I could always count on my mother to set it up.  I remember my American friends coming over to play and glancing at the haft seen table in confusion.  I’m sure they thought to themselves: “Grass on the table?” I enjoyed explaining it to the ones who displayed curiosity. And the gifts were the best part of Noruz – I was a sucker for G.I. Joe action figures.  Cash means little to a boy, but G.I. Joes were as good as gold. 

Although growing up Noruz was more of an experience I realized through my mother and not an Iranian New Year, it was still an Iranian experience because my Iranian mother was carrying on that ancient Iranian cultural holiday of Noruz. Thus, in essence, my mother was doing exactly what Noruz was about – being Iranian.  This upcoming Noruz will be my first Noruz with my immediate family in four years and I am greatly looking forward to continuing together what we started when she first brought me into this world.

I hope that we Iranians who have grown up abroad and have lost much of our identity and connection to our homeland, will honor our parents and their nation of origin by continuing that legacy and celebrating Noruz with our kids in a fashion that will make our parents, our children’s grandparents, proud. As I grow older, memories of my childhood are fading, but Noruz will always be alive in my recollections thanks to my mother.  This Noruz as well as the many that came before it in my lifetime will also be a day where I honor my first teacher, my mother.  As such Noruz can also be called my Mother’s Day.

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