- PREMISE: The role of festivals, especially seasonally determined ones, can (still) inspire man today.
Nowruz
With the coming of spring, at least officially, on March 20, it was also Nowruz for the Persians (New Year, same equinox date). Nowruz, celebrated in many countries along the Silk Road, including Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, India, Iran, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, is recognised by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage, which was a new concept for me: it seems pretty tangible with its festivals on the streets, full of dance, music, poetry, and bonfires.
True enough, if man were to leave all together in a Space Ship to the Pleiades then, yes, there would be nothing tangible (no specific construction) for the next lot of archeologists to unearth and point back to this festival.
Then again, what archeologists?! If we upped and left like that, it is practically inferred that there might also not be too much left of the Equinox that determines the holiday, in the first place. A dramatic tilt to the Earth’s axis and a further thinning of the ozone layer may have shoved us into an eternal ice-age, or othwise the furnace of permanent 50 degree centigrade heat.
May this consideration remind us that if we don’t have any clues as to what we could be looking for we won’t ever find it. Not even if it exists on the currents of time. Deep!
Imagine all the cities sunk into unseen cracks of some parallell reality, still to be discovered, right in our present day! Spring is also the perfect time to tap into this possibility (with the help of projective geometry and etheric formative laws - see Olive Whicher and George Adams).
The Table
One of the more tangible - if hardly lasting - features of Nowruz is the “Haft Sin” table laiden with symbols of abundance and fertility : including, water the hallmark of fertility, candles for the returning light and warmth, eggs, dishes of green sprouts and sprouted wheat to represent rebirth , mirrors (for beauty? We shall study this more below), fruit for abundance, coins for prosperity, even goldfish (alive, to represent the vivifying sunshine). Sometimes you will find vinegar, too, which may seem odd, until you learn it starts with an “S” and represents patience. (Does this correlate in any way with the sponge soaked in vinegar and hyssop- sour and bitter - held up to the dying Christ on the cross: the main spring festival of the Christians?)
The Letter "Sin" or "S"
There is a tradition to use seven items which all begin with “s” (“sin” in Farsi). I can take on board that seven is a lucky number even if I don’t know anything about Persian numerology specifically (and even if I could contact my sister with a PhD in Persian literature I am not sure she would either). I know in Taoism seven is considered lucky (yin+yang+five elements) and this is carried over into Buddhism; and in esoteric science seven refers to the planetary, astral impulses that direct the etheric formative forces, which I can find appropriate in relation to a spring table.
But how about the need for starting with the letter “sin” (s)? There has to be an energy of renewal in this letter.
In fact, there is a LOT to be said about this sound and I shall do so in a supplementary post.
Modern Mishmash?
Then I learned there could be any number of symbolic interpretations lent to the Nowruz holiday which is almost as modern as Halloween (or indeed our own New Year on 1st January) and definitely as folkloristic; meaning it has as little tradition in religion or as many askance influences borrowed from spiritual intuitions made by the people (universally) and not randomly decided upon by the clergy. For Halloween there are associations with All Souls/Saints on the one hand and St. Martin on the other (turnip/pumpkin), while at the same time folklore has a tendency to invert (like carneval) to rock established power houses and return the voice to the people. Does this also go for Nowruz? May we uncover themes from Zorosatrianism, or more universal and esoteric symbology? Thus we also find the Quran on some tables, but more to invoke the sacred function of poetry than to point to any doctrine.
The Mirror
Whether the lady is pregnant or not (most likely not, since fashion liked to make ladies bellies look well fed and fecund; and pregnancy was a bit too embarassing to portray. See the Spanish: "embarazada") there are plenty of references to wealth, health and happiness which equal fertility in an age when self-realisation (the symbolism of the mirror since the time of the Oracle of Delphi) is best manifest by having a family (with as few child deaths as possible).
This progenerative accomplishment is greatly advanced by the comforts of a bed on posts (extreme luxury), warm(fur) clothes and an orange a day to keep the plague away (according to some overly optimistic medieval doctors!).
- Some see peaches rather than oranges on/near the windowsill, but these would be near impossible to import; oranges are luxurious enough! And this feels like a spring picture with its fertile green and Passion of Christ around the mirror, not a time for vulnerable summer fruits.
- The fur mantle, mind you, is not necessarily a give-away as to the time of year; fur was a status symbol in the Middleages and forbidden to be worn unless you were a nobleman but then a nobleman would wear it throughout the year to make no mistake about his superior class.
From an esoteric Chrisitian (Anthroposophic) point of view this does not exclude previous connotations to the Delphic initiation through self-knowledge, which is to recognise the divine and wise being of the spirit before its incarnation into the flesh with its desire/pain (astral)body.
In the Renaissance the emphasis began to shift towards “vanity”. The mirror was used in the allegory of sight by the engraver Hendrik Goltzius (1558-1617) to symbolise prudence. With careful perception we can come to know the truth - and self-reflection is this perception of oneself.
Mark, that one may easily be drawn into Narcissism by too much gazing at oneself! The mirror connotes the reflective surface of the pool featured in this Ovidian Metamorphosis story.
Van Eyck frames the mirror with inlay miniatures depicting the passion of Christ, alluding to the need for a meditative life and regular purification (lent) leading up to the Holy Week. As a married coupled, carnal sin is hard to avoid with a duty to ensure progeny, but try not to enjoy it too much!
The New Eyes Upon You
The candelabra in the same painting is interpreted as the Eye of God, that light in the sky, who counts every hair on your head: so be good! But the Renaissance is fast encroaching upon this medieval notion and if we look into the mirror we see more eyes looking in, boring into the backs of the hosts, and into our own, and all this back to whoever is depicted in the mirror (possibly the artist himself with another guest that could be you). This may give a sense of a new social control going on with the onset of the individualisation process, when burghers are gaining wealth through personal enterprise (merchants) and new learning accessible to many (thanks to the printing press). Everybody is starting to oggle everybody else with secular interests and less to condemn sinful behaviours pertaining to eternal damnation. There is money to be made by keeping an eye on your neighbour. Of course, now religion could come in handy to condemn entire groups (the schisms of faith in the Reformation and Counter-Reformation).
Twelve Days of Celebration
In any case, the Persian New Year lasts 12 days. Thirteen is, also, in this culture considered unlucky, and to quickly skip over this problematic date the green sprouts from the haftseen table are taken along on a picnic and the water is thrown away in the ritual of letting go of all that is old. By then, for us, Easter will have come and gone, and we all shall feel renewed together!
Credits
Banner 1 uses images from: Nowruz celebrations in Virginia, near Washington DC, 2017; Persian New Year, CENTRE for RELIGIOUS PLURALISM; Nowruz celebrations in Virginia, near Washington DC, 2018
Banner 2 uses images from: The Haft-Seen arrangement; Table with seven items; Article from The Iranian
Jan van Eyck, “The Arnolfi Portrait” (no longer necessarily assumed to be the Wedding portrait….), 1434.
William-Adolphe Bouguereau, “Innocence", 1893.
