The Palo Alto City Library hosted its Nowruz New Year Celebration at the Mitchell Park Community Center on Sunday. Participants gathered to watch dance performances from Ballet Afsaneh as well as musical performances from Amir and friends of Amir’s School of Music.
Nowruz, which translates to “new day” in Farsi, is a celebration of the spring equinox and traces back 3,000 years ago to the symbolic triumph of light over darkness. It is one of the most widely celebratedimportant holidays in Iran and is also recognized by many other countries including Afghanistan, Albania, Iraq, Kurdistan, and Uzbekistan.
“I think culture is one of the most important things that keep us alive and together. I believe that if you stop participating in events like this, or you stop playing music, you won’t just die—and especially for those of you who brought your children or your grandchildren, thank you so much, because culture is like an inheritance,” musician Amir Etemadzadeh said. “You either give it to your next generation or you don’t. And if children are not raised with culture they don’t grow up to like much of culture. So, thank you so much for bringing your children forward.”
Decorations, including a Haft-Seen table and an outside set-up to jump over fire, brought strong elements of renewal. The Haft-Seen table is traditionally decorated by items starting with the letter “S,” their symbolism ranging from love to prosperity. Chaharshanbe Suri, meaning festive Wednesday, is the holiday celebrated right before Nowruz. It is a fire jumping ritual to cleanse oneself from the negative energy of the past year.
The event began with two solo performances and a group performance from Ballet Afsaneh, a Bay Area company devoted to sharing the culture of the Silk Road. The dances are characterized by expressive movements and facial expressions, and the artists were adorned with bright, colorful, and patterned clothing.
Following these performances, Etemadzadeh and friends took to the stage to share music from different regions of Iran, beginning in the North. Etemadzadeh introduced a song with a message of hope. “In addition to culture, I think hope is also very important. That’s what keeps us going. If there’s no hope for the future, we’ll just stop living, right? What keeps us going is hope. And with everything that is going on in the world—especially in the Middle East—I am very hopeful for a better, brighter future,” he said.
In between songs, Etemadzadeh pauses to appreciate the instruments and their cultural significance. One such instrument is the tombak, an Iranian goblet drum that can be played in various ways to produce beautiful and interesting sounds. “The tombak is basically interesting because from just one head, from one instrument, you get a lot of different tonalities and a lot of different sounds,” he said. “If you go to the Middle East, especially where I’m from, a lot of the arts are basically little, little, little designs that make a big thing, like the mosque or the castle—little designs that make a huge, beautiful thing. Same thing with the tombak.”
While the musicians took a break, Anahita Tamaddon, the author of “The Meaning of Nowruz” briefly spoke. “As a children’s book writer, I hope that children in Iran, and outside of Iran, get to choose the lives that they want to live, grow into adults that they choose to grow into. So let’s hope for that,” Tamaddon said.
The hosts Sara and Maria then led a children’s storytime and spring song to better explain the significance of rebirth and renewal to the younger audience members. As the weather grows warmer, they explained, leaves grow back on trees, the grass turns green and it steadily becomes spring time. They read from the book, saying the lines both in English and Farsi.
“Nowruz is forgiving and being forgiven,” they read. “Nowruz is remembering that every day, every new day, gives you a chance to start over.”
Amir and his friends took the stage again, producing lively and harmonious tones with styles from Iran and Azerbaijan. He explained the turbulent history of some of the instruments—how they had been banned from public use and how the Iranian revolution had shaped music history.
Etemadzadeh holds up the Daf, a drum used in Persian classical and folk music. The group performs a song in harmony. 
A child accidentally interrupts the performance. 
The performers exchange smiles. 
The audience claps along to the music. 
Etemadzadeh shows multiple instruments. 
Audience members greet each other.
The ballet returned with a Bukharan style dance, from Uzbekistan, and then a Persian dance suite. The audience clapped along to the performances, and watched in awe of the mix of incredible professional dancers, and talented students.
The event concluded a success, a wholesome gathering of the community amid strife in the Middle East. Nowruz will be officially celebrated on March 20, marking the Northern Hemisphere spring equinox.
