'Nowruz Pirouz': Beverly Hills Celebrates Persian New Year

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — A New Day is coming to Beverly Hills.

Saturday marks “Nowruz”, or “New Day,” the Persian New Year celebration held each year on the spring equinox. The 13-day holiday, rooted in Zoroastrian traditions dating back at least 3,000 years, is a celebration of renewal and rebirth that Persians mark by visiting friends and family, buying new clothes, deep cleaning their homes, enjoying a symbolic Haft-Seen feast, and picnicking outside. As spring approaches and there finally appears to be light at the end of the COVID tunnel, the holiday takes on a new significance.

The holiday is a well-known occasion in Beverly Hills, whose population is roughly one quarter Persian. In 2007-8 and 2010-11, the city had a Persian mayor named Jimmy Delshad, who left Shiraz, Iran in 1959. Many Persians arrived after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and settled around Beverly Hills, Westwood, Brentwood, and Bel Air. The community established such a presence that the area became informally known as “Tehrangeles,” a portmanteau of Tehran, the capital of Iran, and Los Angeles.

Currently, “Nowruz” banners hang from street signs all over Beverly Hills, and in other years City Hall has hosted elaborate Nowruz feasts. The holiday is also celebrated all over the Southland, which boasts roughly 700,000 Persians. In past years, there have been various Nowruz celebrations and picnics at Grand Park, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Pasadena, Irvine, and even West Hollywood nightclubs.

This year, various virtual feasts and concerts are being observed. On Tuesday, Sharona Nazarian, Beverly Hills Rotary Club president, LA County commissioner, and senior vice president of international affairs for the Anti-Defamation League; and Nooshin Meshkaty, Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer and Beverly Hills Parking Traffic Commission chair, treated the Council and the public to a virtual Haft-Seen - “Seven S’s” feast - so named because the seven symbolic items on the table all begin with the letter “S”:

• Seeb (apple), representing beauty
• Seer (garlic), representing good health
• Serkeh (vinegar), representing growing to old agge
• Sonbol (hyacinth), representing spring and the scent of heaven
• Samanu (painted eggs), representing fertility
• Sabzeh (sprouts), representing rebirth
• Sekeh (coins), representing prosperity

The table was also decorated with a mirror, a reflection of creation, flickering candles, representing enlightenment and happiness; goldfish, representing life, and rosewater, known for its magical, cleansing powers.

“What is most widely exchanged is hugs and kisses for a year of renewed relationships and love, Nazarian said.

“I want to thank our city officials. From the time that I remember being active in the city, our city has been very supportive of different cultures, and knowing the number of Persian-Americans in this city, they’ve been always very supportive of us,” Meshkaty said, adding that she would like to one day see a Nowruz parade in the city.

“For our families Nawruz is a time of beginning, new hope, and renewal. We bring the haft-seen to the Council in hopes that these types of experiences will ignite curiosity and conversation, and get to know different cultures better - Nawruz pirouz,” Nazarian said, ending with the Farsi phrase for “Happy New Year.”