Learn English with English, baby!

Join for FREE!

Social_nav_masthead_logged_in

My Blog

my_high_IQ

my_high_IQ

Azerbaijan

  •  1 ... 6 7 8
  • Subscribe to my RSS

March 21, 2009

   The biggest holiday in Azerbaijan is Novruz. (you may also  come across several other spellings: nowrooz,nowruz,noruz,no ruz…)

   This spring event has its roots as a pre-Islam New Year celebration. Novruz is the favourite holiday in  Azerbaijan. It has a remarkable endurance and survival capacity, being of non Islamic origin it managed to retain its importance after the Arab conquest and in this century survived Soviet attempts to destroy it.

    Novruz   is a celebration of the spring Equinox (which marks the new year) . Novruz is a time of renewal and symbolizes rebirth, awakening, cleanliness and newness.

    Several things are used to symbolize the occasion, sprouted wheat is a favourite. This is grown in a small vase and placed in a prominent place in the house, such as a table center (the vase with the wheat is called 'semeni')  

     On the last Wednsday before Novruz people light bonfires and jump over them, as in similar Spring festivities in Europe. Tradition holds that the living are visited by the spirits of their ancestors on the last days of the year. Children symbolically reenact the visits. They jump over bonfires and run through the streets, banging on pots and pans with spoons and knocking on doors to ask for treats.

      The menu varies from a great deal from region to region, but for Novruz abundant meals are prepared and ritually seven objects are laid on the tables. Children enjoy this holiday very much, since they get present from their elders, often in the form of money.

  The most pleasant  aspect : a full week of vacation for entire country Laughing

   Happy Novruz for everyone  !

12:28 AM Mar 30 2009

Yüksali

Yüksali
Turkey

Maybe Hallowen and Newruz came to same root, Because nevroz history very old, which there was celebrate before islam long time ago. Newroz mixed some islam rules after turks nomad people joined to islam.

02:01 AM Mar 26 2009

my_high_IQ

my_high_IQ
Azerbaijan

  for MasterMind: this kind of traditions  is something that  unifies us not because of religion or location, but  because of belonging to one nation -  Turk nation. And I do wish you also would value this holiday as we do.

  Dogrudan da bu menim en sevimli bayramidir.Teze ilin bashlangici mehz bu zaman  tam hiss olunur :)

   for Agnolia:   thank you my dear friend for your good wishes!!

   In spite of my panic fear of fire, this year I managed to jump over the bonfire. But honestly it was a trick as well,I simply waited until the fire began dying down and jumped only when it finally was very very small :)

  

 

01:42 AM Mar 22 2009

theMasterMinD
Turkey

Very nice..I wish we could manage to preserve it as a Turkish festival but it somehow backfired here as a means of supporting a once-highly-trustworthy nation to gain its independence (and eventually become powerful nations' toy) in our country.

Tüm Azeri kardeşlerimin Nevruz bayramı kutlu olsun. Biz sahip çıkamadık ama siz sahip çıkın.

01:21 PM Mar 21 2009

Agnolia

Agnolia
Russian Federation

Dear  Lala!  Wish you  happy renewal and rebirth! And burning burning burning and never been burnt!Smile

 

Have you ever jumped over bonfires? If yes, How high was it?

P.S  visiting by spirits of the ancestors …knocking  on doors and asking for treats.. This custom is so similar to Halloween

September 15, 2008

............


A fly cop--an angel policeman--flew over to me and took me by the
left wing. Near at hand was a group of very prosperous-looking
spirits arraigned for judgment.

"Do you belong with that bunch?" the policeman asked.

"Who are they?" was my answer.

.............

"Why," said he, "they are the men who hired working-girls, and paid
'em five or six dollars a week to live on. Are you one of the
bunch?"

"Not on your immortality," said I. "I'm only the fellow that set
fire to an orphan asylum, and murdered a blind man for his pennies."