*Ø* Blogmanac April 2| Sizdeh Bedar, Iran



Sizdeh Bedar (SeezDeh BeDar, Sizdah Bedar), Dodging the 13th day of New Year, Iran
Also called Thirteenth Outside

The 13th day of the traditional Iranian New Year festival of Norouz (Vernal Equinox) is called Sizdeh Bedar. People go out in the nature in groups and spend all day outdoors in the nature in form of family picnics. It is a day of festivity in the nature, where children play and music and dancing is abundant. On this day, people throw their Sabze (green sprouts that they grew as one of the '7-seen' items) away in the nature as a symbolic act of making the nature greener.  
Unmarried girls, hoping to find a husband, tie a knot with blades of grass and make a wish for a good husband before the next Sizdeh Bedar. This knotting of the grass represents the bonding between of a man and a woman. Girls sing this song while knotting: 

Sizdah-Bedar sal-e deegar khooneh shoohar, bacheh baghal!
(Next Sizdah-Bedar, in my husband's home, holding a baby!)


The traditional Iranian festival of the New Year starts at the precise moment of the Vernal Equinox, as Spring ‘officially’ begins. Norouz has been celebrated for more than 3,000 years and is deeply rooted in the rituals and traditions of the Zoroastrian religion. The ancient Persians stained eggs red. Even today in remote areas of Iran, Moslems exchange scarlet eggs during the days of Ali in Ramadan.

This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.