Nowruz: The Festival of Creation’s Rebirth
Ali Blukbashi
A concise, authoritative study of the history, myth, and rituals of Nowruz, from Chaharshanbe Suri to Sizdah Bedar.
About this book
Nowruz: The Festival of Creation’s Rebirth is a study by Ali Blukbashi, a distinguished Iranian ethnographer, first published in 2001 by the Cultural Research Bureau and reprinted many times since.
In a compact volume it examines, from an ethnographic view, the mythic roots of Nowruz, its ties to ancient Iranian ritual, and the festival’s many customs — from Nowruz-khani and Chaharshanbe Suri to the Haft-Sin table and Sizdah Bedar.
Blukbashi reads Nowruz as a celebration of the rebirth of nature and creation, exploring the symbolic meaning of its rites in relation to the turning of the year and the reawakening of the earth.
It is among the most authoritative short Persian sources on Nowruz, and rewarding for anyone who wants to grasp the meaning of the festival beyond its surface customs.
Hamed Saber, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
