It’s that time of year again. Actually, it’s a little after that time of year, but hey, we were busy! It’s Novruz!! Novruz is my second favorite holiday of the year (Christmas is just slightly better). Jesse and I first learned about and celebrated Novruz while we were in the Peace Corps in Azerbaijan. It celebrates the new year that begins on the first day of spring. You can read more about it here. Alma and I spent about an hour today working on our first preparations for our 3rd annual Novruz party.
To keep up with my goal of using my time in the kitchen wisely, while the eggs were cooking, I also made a batch of chocolate syrup and worked on cleaning up some of our dishes.
Women in Azerbaijan work very hard to provide an amazing feast for their families. These feasts might happen on each Tuesday before the equinox and an ever bigger feast on the equinox. Like I said, Azerbaijani women work very hard. I started my prep by hard boiling 10 eggs and dying them. Not too hard for the first round of prep.
I love that eggs are part of this Islamic celebration. It really reminds me how truly connected and similar Islam is to Christianity. If only everyone could see it that way. Like Easter eggs, Novruz are dyed various colors.
While Easter eggs are hidden and found, Novruz eggs are part of a different game. Each person picks an egg, then people go around the table trying to break each others’ eggs by tapping them together. The person who has the unbroken egg in the end is the winner!
