Persian New Year and Amazing Poets at Children 1st @ Grantham

Early Years have been celebrating and learning about Nowruz, the Persian New Year, which marks the first day of spring in the Persian calendar.

Xander’s mum very kindly brought in a book and some items for us all to look at and talk about.

During the celebration people will lay a table called a ‘Haft sin.’ This is the most important part of Nowruz. It is a table setting with seven different items beginning with the letter S that represent good things that will happen in the new year. These are :

An apple for beauty and health (Sib/Seeb)

Green shoots with a red ribbon tied  for new beginnings (Sabzeh)

Dried fruit of a lotus tree for love (Senjed)

Garlic for protection and medicine (Sir/Seer)

Vinegar for age, maturity and wisdom (Serkeh)

Sweet wheat pudding (Samanoo)

The sumac plant for the sunrise of a new year (Soumagh).

The children had lots of fun talking about these items. They also decorated eggs using lots of bright colours and painted pictures of Hyacinths which is a spring beauty (Sonbol).

They then went onto the field where we made a pretend bonfire. The children took it in turns to jump over it to signify the start of the New Year.

Thank-you to Xanders mum for all her support.

There was further cause for celebration at Grantham when we heard that some of the poems written by our Early Years on the theme of ‘All About Me’ have been selected to be part of the Young Writers Anthology 2023. Congratulations to our Early Years poets!