By Kay Knapton
In Seattle’s diverse communities, New Year’s celebrations continue, even as our Roman calendar moves further from January 1 and the ritual ball drops at Time Square in New York City. Next comes the Lunar New Year, based on the second new moon after the winter solstice, celebrated by various Asian cultures, including Chinese and Vietnamese, all found in Seattle.
For the newcomers from Central Asia, where Seattle’s sister city Tashkent is located, in Uzbekistan, a celebration called Navruz (New Day) follows an ancient tradition marking the spring equinox, usually on March 21. It is the biggest holiday of the year, celebrating the renewal of nature when warmer days encourage new life to appear.
Origins of Navruz
Navruz is not only a New Year’s celebration but an ancient tradition with roots in Zoroastrianism dating back over 3,000 years. Navruz is on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, noting that it “champions the values of tolerance, cultural diversity, and peace between generations and within families, as well as reconciliation and neighborliness.” With themes of renewal and community and a legacy of ancient beliefs in modern life, it balances tradition and transformation. It demonstrates the relationship between humanity and the natural world. On a personal level, this ancient tradition promotes goodness, peace, and charity. Navruz is seen as a time to make a new start with a clean slate. People clean their homes, cook traditional foods, and gather with friends and family to enjoy the fruits of their labor. They spend time with loved ones, eating, dancing and singing, playing sports. Many buy or make new clothes to start the New Year.
Seven items decorate a Navruz Haft Sin table, each beginning with the Farsi letter “S” as a reminder of God’s infinite blessings and grace and that the harshness of winter is over. The seven items are: Sabzeh (wheat grass) representing vegetation, nature; Sib (apple) symbolizing sweetness and beauty; Senjed (Sea-buckthorn) signifying health and longevity; Seer (garlic) representing strength and protection; Samanu (wheat germ pudding) symbolizing prosperity and wealth; Serkeh (vinegar) representing wisdom and knowledge; and Somaq (Sumac) symbolizing tolerance and patience. During the Soviet era, Navruz was discouraged throughout Central Asia because of its religious origin. Modern Zoroastrians practice this religion today. With the fall of the Soviet Union, Navruz celebrations have revived as people of Central Asia sought to reclaim and strengthen their distinct national and ethnic identities. Navruz is a powerful part of that expression with minor differences among the five nations, called the ‘stans’ of Central Asia. Numerous countries surrounding Central Asia, such as Afghanistan and Iran, also celebrate.
STACA establishes annual Navruz event
Seattle-Tashkent Sister City Association (STSCA) has celebrated Navruz since 1998, in acknowledgment and welcome to the burgeoning Central Asian communities of Puget Sound, not just the emigres from Uzbekistan. The celebration in Seattle had its beginnings in the early 1970s at the University of Washington Department of Central Asian Studies with about 40 people. Since becoming a community-wide event, it has drawn up to 600 guests. The event showcases specially invited dignitaries, traditional music and dance, other traditional activities, and food. This year, STSCA will celebrate NAVRUZ 2025 on Saturday, April 12 from 1-5 p.m. at Shoreline Community College.
Traditional foods
Holiday foods are often the same as daily foods but embellished. Plov, a dish cooked outdoors over a fire in a huge steaming Uzbek kazan (cauldron) in which lamb chunks are browned in oil with onions, are simmered until tender. Rice with shredded carrots is added. Samsa is a fried pastry often stuffed with a vegetable filling, spinach, pumpkin, or squash preferred. Chuchvora is a meat-filled dumpling. Achchiq-chuck, a tomato and cucumber salad, adds color and crunch. The table also boasts trays of walnuts, dried apricots, and dates, plus oranges and apples.
Lola Zakharova, STSCA board member, who grew up in Tashkent reminisces about the festive celebration.
“One of my fondest memories is the food. My mother would make Bogursoks—small, dense nuggets of deep-fried dough, buttery and crisp, sometimes sprinkled with sugar. I loved how their smell filled our two-bedroom apartment I shared with my parents and three sisters. But what made Navruz even more special was the communal spirit—neighbors sharing dishes with each family’s plov (pilaf) having its own unique touch. A bowl of plov topped with bogursoks was my favorite part of the day. Somehow, the plov from other homes always tasted better, perhaps because it carried with it the warmth of shared traditions and friendship. Now, though I live in Seattle, Navruz remains close to my heart. I try to recreate the flavors of my childhood, frying bogursoks and making plov in my own kitchen.”
“I grew up in Uzbekistan prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1989,” remembers Shakhida Ismailova, STSCA co-president. “We lived in a high-rise apartment where neighbors hardly knew each other. Relatives would share Sumalak made out of fermented grains of wheat grass and flour, but my working mother never cooked it because it is time-consuming. Traditionally, the women in our family would gather, tending the huge kazan, talking, dancing, and having a good time while stirring the sumalak, as it cooked for a whole day until it became a taffy-like treat.”
Tea service is symbolized by the samovar, a common fixture of Russian tea culture that was exported to Central Asia in the 18th century. A samovar consists of a large urn as a base in which fuel, usually charcoal or pine cones, heats water to make a strong concentrated tea that is diluted with hot water when served. Tea is imported from China, Georgia, and Iran.
Traditional music and dance
“There will be no Navruz without dancing in any country that celebrates Navruz,” declares Emiko Nakamura, founder of Seattle Eurasia Academy and Arts Ensemble. “We usually make brand new costumes for the special once-in-a-year celebration, since the holiday is the symbol of RENEWAL of life on earth.”
The costumes, usually made of silk, make use of traditional ikat designs (a dying technique resulting in blurred designs), and embroidery techniques to create a visual rainbow of color and design. The Ensemble provides lively folk dancing entertainment for multiple Navruz celebrations in the Puget Sound region, including Seattle-Tashkent Sister City Association, Oasis Foundation of Turkmen community, and a couple of Iranian organizations’ celebrations.
Kay Knapton is a board member of the Seattle-Tashkent Sister City Association and community activist, who has traveled through Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries. She can be contacted at kknapton1@msn.com.