“Sorkhi-ye toh az man o zardi-ye man az tou!”

“Take away my winter pallor and give me your healthy red colour!”

These are the words shouted by people in the Persian Gulf region who celebrate the tradition of No Rooz, or New Year, while jumping over small bonfires the Wednesday evening before the first day of spring. No Rooz is known as the Persian New Year, and is most associated with Iran. But in other countries across the Middle East, including Iraq, Egypt and Turkey, the ancient holiday is recognized, and many people celebrate it as well, particularly those of Persian or Kurdish descent.

Last year, that Wednesday evening of fire jumping known as Chahar Shanbeh Suri fell on March 19 — the same night as Bush’s 48 hour deadline for Saddam Hussein to comply with his ultimatum or face a massive military attack. As people petitioned the fire to replace their pallor with redness, the deadline passed, and the coalition forces planned to deliver more fire to Iraq than they have seen in years.

After the first “target of opportunity” bombing on March 19, it wasn’t until the evening after No Rooz, March 21, that the Bush administration sent their best wishes for a very happy holiday to the region and the long-awaited bombs started falling in earnest on Baghdad.The fire they sent did bring lots of blood-red colour to the city, but it was certainly not healthy, and the pallor of fear likely replaced the pallor of winter in the faces of the city’s inhabitants.

The most familiar No Rooz tradition is the setting of the table with the haft-seen, or seven items starting with the Persian letter seen which transliterates as our letter “s.” Each item has symbolic meaning. For instance, an apple (seeb) represents health, vinegar (serkeh) represents longevity, and a small dish of grass or similar greenery (sabzeh) represents rebirth.

Getting into the No Rooz spirit, the Bush administration sent a couple of symbolic seenha of their own: sarbazha (soldiers) and suzandan-e-sokhtemanha (burning buildings). Donald Rumsfeld would have the world believe that those seenha are symbolic of freedom, but the images of dead and maimed Iraqi civilians make these seenha seem much more symbolic of hatred and destruction.

No Rooz is a time of socializing and visiting. After the first day of No Rooz, celebrants spend the next couple of weeks visiting friends and family, giving gifts to their young people, and renewing old friendships, especially ones that may have gone sour. Last year, many Iraqis were visiting their friends and families — in hospitals and infirmaries, where their loved ones, injured by the not-so-smart bombs, were either recovering or dying of their wounds.

The U.S. and its coalition allies also spent the week of No Rooz last year visiting former friends. They came to visit Iraq, and claimed to be bearing the gift of liberation for its people. In reality, the Iraqi people were not receiving, but paying for an old friendship that went sour and is certainly not likely to be renewed — the one between the U.S. government and Saddam Hussein, the man whose atrocities were tolerated quite nicely by the U.S. when Iran was their common enemy.

On the thirteenth day after No Rooz, celebrants spend the day outside having picnics and throwing the sabzeh (grass) from their decorative table into running streams for good luck. Last year, many Iraqis also spent the thirteenth day outside — trying to get their share of food aid as it was distributed by relief agencies. Many were spending their time trying to survive without running water and electricity from destroyed infrastructure rather than throwing grass into a running stream.

However, one part of the No Rooz celebration was probably carried out by all Iraqis, whether they normally celebrated this ancient holiday or not: wishing for more happiness over the next year. Now, a year later, looking back at the guerrilla war and quagmire in the region ever since the initial attack, it is debatable whether their wish was granted.

Michelle Langlois

Michelle Langlois

Michelle is the editor of In Cahoots and is based in Toronto, Ontario. She has written articles and book reviews for rabble.ca, and occasionally produces videos for rabbletv.