{"id":581,"date":"2011-03-14T10:57:11","date_gmt":"2011-03-14T10:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/projectconversion.com\/?p=581"},"modified":"2011-03-14T10:57:11","modified_gmt":"2011-03-14T10:57:11","slug":"nouruz-bringing-in-the-new-year-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/03\/nouruz-bringing-in-the-new-year-again.html","title":{"rendered":"Nouruz: Bringing in the New Year…Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last time I celebrated New Year’s, I was chugging my last beer before the start of Project Conversion and, at the stroke of midnight, asking myself\u00a0what the heck I was getting\u00a0into. Little did I know what this year had in store…and we are only three months in!<\/p>\n

Now, I get to celebrate the new year all over again with Nouruz.\u00a0Observed on the\u00a0vernal equinox, Nouruz\u00a0isn’t just a Zarathushti holiday, but\u00a0celebrated across the Middle East as a way to usher in a new spring and a new year.<\/p>\n

Meaning “new day,”\u00a0Nouruz\u00a0is the most important holiday of the Zarathushti\u00a0calendar. This is a time\u00a0when new life emerges from the cold grip of winter and\u00a0Ahura Mazda receives praise and thanks for\u00a0His bounties. It is indeed the bridge between darkness and light–of rebirth and renewal. Fires are lit (including a bonfire on the night before. Yes!), and in some areas fireworks are even set off.<\/p>\n

Preparation for\u00a0Nouruz\u00a0begins weeks in advance.\u00a0A set of new clothes are purchased\u00a0(or made), pastries baked, seeds\u00a0planted, and a thorough house-cleaning takes place. We in the\u00a0West\u00a0would recognize this concept\u00a0as “spring cleaning.” A couple of days before the new year, Zarathushtis\u00a0set up a ceremonial table called a Sofreh-e\u00a0Haft Seen. This special table holds many items depending on your family’s tradition and each has a particular meaning. These items include flowers (to honor ancestors), a mirror (to remember lessons of the past), an oil lamp (for enlightenment), a goldfish in a bowl (life in motion), apples (symbolizing the earth), a copy of\u00a0an Avesta prayer book, and\/or an assortment of fruits and pastries. I’ll have images of my table up in a few days, but for now, here are a few to give you an idea:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Because my house is in chaos right now\u00a0with all of the packing going on, my Sofreh-e\u00a0Haft Seen table might not be this elaborate or pretty, but I’ll do my best. Which brings me to my next point: moving.<\/p>\n

That’s right, my family is making an unexpected move…right across town. My grandparents discovered that the house next to them foreclosed and the price tag was\u00a0near-miraculous. They refused to let us pass on\u00a0the opportunity. We had no intentions of staying in this area, however we weren’t sure how we could afford to move where we want to eventually settle. This house is better than what we are currently renting and represents a huge monthly savings in payments. Plus its ours. This has all happened within the last two weeks. There are boxes and totes all around me and there’s barely enough room for my candles and cup-of-tea. It’s possible that one of my children are missing. In short, life is crazy now, but it all forces me to consider one conspicuous feature: the timing.<\/p>\n

Nouruz\u00a0is all about renewal, rejuvenation, and thanksgiving for God’s blessing and providence. I cannot ignore the coincidence that I am embracing the Zarathushti\u00a0faith this month all while celebrating the new year and in doing so, refreshing\/beginning a new chapter in my family’s life with a new house. This might not be\u00a0the area we want to stay in forever, but greater wisdom shows that purchasing this house for next to nothing, making some improvements\u00a0over the next few years, and then selling it for a\u00a0profit that leads to a healthy down payment on something else is the way to go. But the point here is that we would have never thought of this because our eyes were set\u00a0in one direction. Life came along and forced us to think outside the box. We’ve all heard that God moves in mysterious ways. Was it God? Let’s remember, the beginning of this month was when my spiritual troubles began. It’s also right before events cranked into motion regarding this house. Is there some communication going on here, some subtle message that says “I’m here…and I’m looking out for you.”<\/p>\n

I don’t know. That’s where faith comes in, right? We all want billboards to confirm our feelings. Sometimes faith is just impossible to bear, but how often are the sweetest words passed into our hearts and minds by the faintest whisper, the gentlest kiss? A single, lonely\u00a0star can be found almost immediately in a wide, black night. In our busy world of sensory overload, do we need a God with a megaphone to compete for our attention, or does the soft touch of “coincidence” do the trick?<\/p>\n

I know I went off on a tangent there, but it’s an interesting concept to mull over and because I’m hopelessly curious and analytical, I couldn’t resist the temptation of connecting the dots.<\/p>\n

Back on the subject of Nouruz, I’ll leave you with a short video a Zarathushti sent me about the holiday. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

httpvh:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=K_J1SLNduz4<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last time I celebrated New Year’s, I was chugging my last beer before the start of Project Conversion and, at the stroke of midnight, asking myself\u00a0what the heck I was getting\u00a0into. Little did I know what this year had in store…and we are only three months in! Now, I get to celebrate the new…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":437,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[16,216,233],"class_list":["post-581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zarathushti","tag-andrew-bowen","tag-nouruz","tag-project-conversion"],"yoast_head":"\nNouruz: Bringing in the New Year...Again - Project Conversion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/03\/nouruz-bringing-in-the-new-year-again.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nouruz: Bringing in the New Year...Again - Project Conversion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The last time I celebrated New Year’s, I was chugging my last beer before the start of Project Conversion and, at the stroke of midnight, asking myself\u00a0what the heck I was getting\u00a0into. Little did I know what this year had in store…and we are only three months in! Now, I get to celebrate the new…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/03\/nouruz-bringing-in-the-new-year-again.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Project Conversion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-14T10:57:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/projectconversion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/nouruz.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nouruz: Bringing in the New Year...Again - Project Conversion","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/03\/nouruz-bringing-in-the-new-year-again.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nouruz: Bringing in the New Year...Again - Project Conversion","og_description":"The last time I celebrated New Year’s, I was chugging my last beer before the start of Project Conversion and, at the stroke of midnight, asking myself\u00a0what the heck I was getting\u00a0into. Little did I know what this year had in store…and we are only three months in! Now, I get to celebrate the new…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/03\/nouruz-bringing-in-the-new-year-again.html","og_site_name":"Project Conversion","article_published_time":"2011-03-14T10:57:11+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/projectconversion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/nouruz.jpg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/03\/nouruz-bringing-in-the-new-year-again.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/03\/nouruz-bringing-in-the-new-year-again.html","name":"Nouruz: Bringing in the New Year...Again - Project Conversion","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/03\/nouruz-bringing-in-the-new-year-again.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/03\/nouruz-bringing-in-the-new-year-again.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/projectconversion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/nouruz.jpg","datePublished":"2011-03-14T10:57:11+00:00","dateModified":"2011-03-14T10:57:11+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/03\/nouruz-bringing-in-the-new-year-again.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/03\/nouruz-bringing-in-the-new-year-again.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/03\/nouruz-bringing-in-the-new-year-again.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/projectconversion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/nouruz.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/projectconversion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/nouruz.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/03\/nouruz-bringing-in-the-new-year-again.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Nouruz: Bringing in the New Year…Again"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/","name":"Project Conversion","description":"12 Months of Spiritual Promiscuity","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/author"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/437"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2253,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions\/2253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}