Monday, April 02, 2007

Lucky Thirteen

I was going to write a post titled "Unlucky Twelve" yesterday, but it was such an unlucky day that "I had a very bad feeling about it!"

Today is Farvardin 13, aka "Sizdah-be-Dar". I couldn't find a good translation for this phrase in English. It means something like "throw away the thirteen". Sizdah-be-Dar is the last day of the Iranian Norooz festival. Iranians believe it is unlucky to remain at home on this day so almost all people go on picnic. On the picnic, they throw away their Sabzeh, the seeds they grow in a dish as part of Norooz traditions, (usually) into a river.

On Sizdah-be-Dar some people fasten a few grass leaves together. They believe when the knot opens one of their problems will be solved (this is especially done by unmarried girls who think it will help them find Mr. Right).

Another thing some people do is pulling practical jokes or telling others a "thirteen's lie" (it is something very similar to April Fool; Farvardin 13 normally falls on April 2 and in some years on April 1). An excellent example of a thirteen's lie was Shargh newspaper's "lies" two years ago. Shargh, printed a full paper of false news on that day. Some of them, like that the Milad tower is going to collapse due to a technical mistake in its design, were widely believed, although the page was titled "The Thirteen's Lie" (apparently many people had not noticed it!).

Another good tradition many people do is releasing the Norooz gold fish back into rivers.

And, again, we have the story of Islamic Republic's struggle to weaken Iranian traditions. The IRI media forecasted a rainy day (it did rain, but late at afternoon). They also held a Sabzeh Fair on Farvardin 12 so that people would not do the normal tradition of throwing their Sabzeh into rivers. I pointed out Farvardin 12 is an unlucky day; it is the day "they" call The Islamic Republic Day. 28 years ago on such day, Khoemini called for a nation wide referendum in which the large number of ignorant people voted "Yes" to Islamic Republic. I'm curious how many of them had really read the new constitution draft. Anyhow, which one's an unlucky day? The day on which everyone goes out and has fun (and few really believe in the unlucky thirteen), or the day on which one of the most brutal governments of the world officially recognized itself?

4 comments:

Mirror Polisher said...

LOL @ the prank Sharq played regarding Milad Tower and 12th Farvardin.
Thanks for making me laugh.

Anonymous said...

lol!!
in javab e man bood? ke goftam baba narid sizda be dar??!!
( inja khodet bezar emotican e cheshmak. ;) )

Homayoon said...

sharmande...zaheran ekhtelafe nazar darim! :)

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