Happy New Year!

This past Saturday the entire Muslim world celebrated the new year:  according to the local calendar, it is now officially the year 1388!  We found that our city is the annual epicenter for the new year celebrations for both the entire nation and several of the neighboring ones, much the same way that Times Square is the epicenter for American celebration.  In the week leading up to Nao Roz  (what they call New Years Day...literally "new day") people descended on the city in droves, increasing the population from the average 400,000 to over 1 million people.  There was literally no room in any of the hotels, and some of our friends told us they had over 40 relatives & friends sleeping on their floors and in their hallways.  We ourselves had friends from our old city visiting, so we reached 11 adults and 4 kids at our house - our attempt at "being cultural."

The actual day of Nao Roz turned out to be very similar to New Year's Day in NYC.  Everyone flocks to the shrine in the middle of the city to watch a giant flag raised, only here they do it at 10am instead of midnight.  The crowds are so thick you can barely move and people climb into the trees and balconies of adjacent buildings to get a good look.  The police actually close off all roads in a 2 km radius to cars - only taxis with special permits (and really important people, like presidents & governors) can drive anywhere near the shrine.  The celebration is mostly a day-long street party culminating in a fireworks display around 11pm that night.  We were fortunate that our house is taller than our neighbors, so we had a great view of the fireworks from the room of our house.

Technically people say that the actual day of Nao Roz is only the first day of a 40-day celebration of the new year, but in reality many of the visitors to the city have already started returning to their homes.  The decorations will stay up for 40 days, but everyone returns to work within a day or two of Nao Roz;  the only real celebration we can discern are the "Women's Days" which occur on the 4 Wednesdays following the new year.  On these days, the park surrounding the shrine is closed to all men (enforced by police) and the women go to picnic without their headscarves and without having to behave "properly" because men are present.  Honestly - although the excitement was fun - we're ready for the celebrations to be over and the city to return to normal again.