Thus spake Zarathustra

"seven symbolic objects ... representing wishes for prosperity for the year ahead ... typically include sprouting wheatgrass symbolising rebirth and renewal, painted eggs symbolising fertility and creativity, candles representing life and luck, a mirror symbolising the field of possibilities, apples representing health, garlic representing medicine, vinegar representing age and wisdom, a gold coin representing wealth and hyacinths representing beauty. A goldfish in a bowl is always placed on the altar, symbolising life within life." Yasmin Khan

I am part way through my next Christmas cook book - Saffron Tales by Yasmin Khan which is about Persian food and I confess this is a another one I bought myself. The others are not though. The author is an Iranian living in England and this book describes a journey that she took to Iran to explore the food and the country of her younger years.

What struck me as I was reading through the Introduction was the importance of the ancient religion of Zoroastrianism to the modern Iranians. She hardly mentions Islam and the various festivals such as Ramadan associated with that, but talks a lot about Nowruz, the Persian New Year which celebrates the Vernal equinox in March and the Winter solstice festivals too. It is interesting is it not how these very ancient traditions carry right through into modern times? In Christian countries, those big festivals of Christmas and Easter are really based on more ancient pagan celebrations of the end of winter and the coming of spring. And just about every major festival around the world has food as a focus - a feast - or a fast - traditional dishes that are eaten on these occasions only - why don't we eat turkey all year? Well you can but mostly we don't. Or mince pies, plum pudding, chocolate eggs ... Part of the reason is that the food eaten at those festivals would lose their importance if we ate them all the time. We treasure these festivals. I'm not sure why although I suspect it has something to do with continuity for the nred to remember our beginnings, our place on the earth together with a hope for the future - that there will be a future.

The Nowruz (Persian New Year) festival is huge. It runs for two weeks and schools and workplaces are closed down. We are told that this is a rigidly Islamic country and yet they allow the place to come to a stop to celebrate a festival from another religion entirely.

And I was struck by those seven symbols on the new year altars. Of the seven (well eight if you include the goldfish), five are food, one is a plant and one is an animal. We don't eat goldfish - but we do eat fish so that's sort of food too. And the symbolism is interesting too - vinegar for age and wisdom, apples for health, garlic for medicine. Ancient yet modern at the same time.

"At the culmination of the festivities, the whole country embarks on a national picnic at their local riverbank. The wheatgrass that people have been growing on their Nowruz altar is taken outside and they make a wish by tying knots in it. The wheatgrass is then thrown into the water and they watch it run downstream, where it will slowly merge back into the ecosystem, along with their hopes and dreams for the year ahead." Yasmin Khan, Saffron Tales

This part of the festival is called Sizdah-bedar.

It's not quite what we think of when we think of modern Iran is it?

Another aspect of Zorastrianism and Persian/Iranian food is the health aspect. Like the ancient Chinese, Greeks and Indians they had a medical regime that was based on some kind of balance, of elements. In this case of hot and cold with every food being classified as either hot or cold. It's called Tebb-e-Somnati and every dish attempts to have a balanced combination of hot and cold - walnuts, for example are hot, pomegranates are cold.

Zoroastrianism is said by many to be the first monotheistic religion. There are still practitioners around today - the Parsees of India and Pakistan being perhaps the most notable. I have a vague feeling that there is some connection with the Masons too. But I'm not going to go on about Zoroastrianism here. I was just somewhat surprised by the obvious importance of it in a country that is so rigidly Muslim. Well the leaders are. The people, perhaps, have different ideas. And how the food of Persia is so heavily influenced by it. More about that later.