Happy Nowruz!
March 21st marks the first day of the Persian Calendar and across Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan and Afghanistan is celebrated by lots of different groups as Nowruz. Nowruz has been celebrated for thousands of years and promotes the values of peace and solidarity among families and friends and across communities. Many of the asylum seeking young people we work with would have celebrated this day at home with fires, dancing and copious amounts of food. While we knew we would get nowhere near to replacing that, we decided we would have our own Carefree Nowruz celebrations to commemorate the day.
Nowruz is celebrated as a welcoming of Spring and new growth so what better place to go to than The Eden Project. We started the day with young people taking over our car stereos, blasting traditional Kurdish and Afghani music, while driving through thick Cornish drizzle to the venue. For the first part of the morning, young people were given free reign of the Tropical and Mediterranean biomes with some young people climbing up to the highest viewing platforms above the canopy and lots of photoshoots being taken in scenic spots.
In the afternoon, we headed up to a secret garden where the young people cooked a spiced vegetable stew and rice over an open fire. We also shared a traditional dish called Haft Mewa, which literally means seven fruits, and is a fruit salad made up of seven kinds of dried fruit. We continued to enjoy Kurdish and Afghani music and were introduced to some traditional dancing around the fire. At the end of the day, everyone headed home tired but in good spirits after a successful Cornish Nowruz!