Students' blogs

second year of celebrating beginning spring and Persian new year by my own...missing home but still fine ;)

This is the last Sunday of the winter and the spring officially will start next week in 21th of March.  Here there are not blossoms on trees yet but the birds sang and there is no sign of wintery weather any more. And these days I miss my home town little bit more that now is covered by flowers greenness. Maybe one reason is that I am tired because of school stuff and a little frustrated for finding a job. And there is absolutely another reason! ..I am from Iran our New Year celebration which is called “Norouz” is the first day of the spring.  And this event is one the events that you will miss your family the most. Family members’ gatherings and celebrating New Year with friends and relatives altogether are most important traditions for our new year. And I am thinking for the second year being far away from home what I am supposed to do here alone? Well…I can say that I am not going to let this loneliness ruin my loveliest event of the year. I and my friends have planned to celebrate the event together not to feel lonely. And a good thing about our new year in Sweden is that people here are familiar with it and it`s rituals and celebrations. The reason is that there are so many foreigners from different countries living in Sweden who have Norouz celebration too. More over after our new year was entered to the UN`s calendar, this was recognized more from Swedish society and now it`s more and international celebration of starting the spring, Though, for the rituals and the traditions, this is us that do tem ;) . I really like it when I see that cultural and traditional heritages of foreigners here is Sweden are respected very much. However sometimes I feel that it discourages non Swedish people for joining to the Swedish community and society. I think this is something that foreigners should decide about it and accept that now they are a member of the Society and to nourish and grow shouldn’t get isolated. Any ways…this attention and respect to other cultures fascinates me here. Even in schools, children learn about different nationalities, religions and cultures and for immigrants there language courses for practicing their mother tongue language and not forgetting them.  I remember last year before starting our new year there was a four hour special live program from the national TV channel was broadcasted in Persian (my mother tongue language). And the prime minster of Sweden said happy New Year in Persian: D this was feeling good and heartwarming.

Here in karlsatd city the Iranian Norouz celebration is not so big in comparison with big cities like Stockholm and Gothenburg. I have grown plants as a tradition for the New Year and some other preparation stuff like baking and so on but I cannot completely do what you do in your home country for this celebration. For me and my family that Norouz is a very extra ordinary event and all of my childhood memories have some thing to do with that this is one of the most moments that I cannot show off as macho and irony any ore wish I was home. T

he fire festival which is another event happening some days before New Year I think that we would be so few to have a big fire festival in our small campus :P. Fire festival is celebration of spring, sun, light return and the New Year. To celebrate with fire, dance and music is a centuries old tradition. It is the spring fire which exists in many countries from Asia to Europe as a festival of the beginning of the spring. The exact dates vary between different cultures. And what I didn’t know about it before…even in Sweden the spring fire is also an ancient festival. No matter how different are these ancient festivals are from each nation to another in detail, but I think that the originality behind the rituals and traditions, their symbolism, rejoining tor the nature elements  and  are means of bringing nations together and weakens the ethnocentrism and recalling again that we are the people of a big human society called earth.

Wish you all love and happiness and a great spring where ever in the world you are … J