By Aaliyah Beed
Reporter

CSU Bakersfield’s Associated Students, Inc. alongside the International Students Club held its first annual Nowruz celebration March 20 in the Stockdale Room. The event titled Nowruz: A Persian New Year Celebration brought a taste of the Persian culture and tradition to CSUB.

The Nowruz celebration, which translates to “new life” celebration, had authentic Persian food, a dance performance, fashion show, music, raffle, speaker and a video presentation.

Professor Mohsen Attaran delivered an informative presentation about the history of Nowruz. He has been at CSUB since 1984 and is excited to see this celebration happening. According to Attaran, Nowruz has been celebrated for over 25,000 years and is currently celebrated by 350 million people worldwide.

Attaran explained that Nowruz is held on the first day of Spring at the time of equinox. Equinox occurs twice a year when day and night are of equal length. This year Nowruz was celebrated at 2:58 p.m. Although preparation for Nowruz starts 100 days prior.

According to Attaran, Nowruz is a 15-day long celebration. For the first 12 days youth go visit elders that are family or friends. He explained that the culture was different than American culture as we put more importance on our millenniums than our seniors.

These days of visiting is followed by a picnic on the thirteenth day. There are many parts to the Nowruz celebrations, and some celebrate slightly different.

On the last Wednesday before the celebration some jump over bonfires or light fireworks. Attaran compared it to Fourth of July in America, but on another level.

There is much more to the celebrations and traditions of Nowruz. For more information you can contact Attaran for the link to a video he personally made about the holiday at his email [email protected].

The event brought a new celebration to the CSUB campus.