Life and Customs
Everyday life in Iran is conditioned by age-old social and religious traditions. Iran is a profoundly Islamic country, but has preserved many of its colourful pre-Islamic customs, particularly the spring festival of Now Ruz marking the Persian New YearThe Persian New Year begins at the precise moment when the sun passes through the vernal equinox, almost always on the 21st of March, and the following thirteen days are marked by a series of festivities and visits to relatives and friends. For several weeks beforehand housewives have been making new clothes and preparing sweetmeats for visitors. On the last Wednesday of the old year bonfires are lit in gardens and open spaces over Which people jump as they ceremonially rid themselves of their sorrows and care
Every house prepares a display known a "Haft-sin" (the Seven S's), consisting of seven objects the name of which in Persian begins with the letter S, completed by a copy of the Holy Quran a mirror and a bowl of goldfish. Above, a Now Ruz public performance at Tehran's Rudaki Hall.
It is considered unlucky to stay at home on the thirteenth day of the Now Ruz festival, and a massive national picnic takes place, the favoured spot; being a grassy riverside.
Iranians also observe the lslamic holy days, the most important of which are the Eid-e Fetr, the great festival at the end of Ramadan (the month of abstinence and self-purification) as well' as the birthdays of the Prophet Mohammad and the Shi'ite Imams, and the mourning days marking their deaths. The month of Moharram, in which Imam Hossein and his family were martyred, is a particularly mournful occasion, and many people wear black. Religious activities are intensified in Moharram and no marriages are celebrated.
Reza Shah the Great encouraged Iranians to wear European clothes which had first been introduced towards the end of the nineteenth century, thus reviving the tradition of trousers and jackets worn by many Iranians in Achaemenian and Parthian times. The long robe with mantle and turban, brought by Islam, was only worn by priests. In the towns women were also dressed in the European style, often in the latest fashions, sometimes covered with a long piece of cloth draped from head to foot, known as a chador. The veil officially abolished by Reza Shah in the thirties, was rarely seen during the Pahlavi Era. The tchador, however has become obligatory since the revolution.
Most provinces have their traditional costumes, which are often very elaborate and colourful, especially in north Iran. The women usually wear trousers and skirts with numerous petticoats, and the men a variation of the jacket, waistcoat and trousers of ancient Iran.
Persian food is varied and tasty, almost always cooked with spices or herbs but never pungently hot. The staple item of daily diet is wheat bread baked in a number of distinctive shapes sizes and thicknesses and preferably eaten straight from the oven with fresh herbs and cheese. The most popular cooked dishes consist of steamed rice (polo) accompained by a khoresh, a thick sauce of meat and seasoned vegetables. The national dish is chelo kabab, grilled filet of lamb eaten with rice mixed with butter, egg yolk and powdered sumac. Ab-egusht, a stew containing meat, potatoes and beans, is also very popular, and is usually served in the individual pots in which it has simmered for several hours over a charcoal fire.
North Iran is famous for its fish, particularly the sturgeon, from which the world's finest caviar is obtained, and also produces almost all of the country's rice and tea. A huge range of fish and crustaceans is found in the Persian Gulf, but chiefly because of transportation problems, these are not as popular as they deserve to be. Lamb and mutton are the most favoured meats. The consumption of meat and poultry was rising rapidly in line with increasing per capita incomes during the Pahlavi Era.
Iranians are particularly fond of fresh fruit, and almost every region is famous for one or more varieties. The great range of climate ensures that the larger towns enjoy a constant supply of fresh fruit and vegetables year-round. Tea, prepared in a samovar and drunk with lump sugar from tiny glasses, is the commonest beverage, and the larger cities have bottling plants for most of the internationally known soft drinks.
Persian poets have often praised the "daughter of the vine", one of their epithets for wine, but the quality was somewhat variable. Excellent beer and vodka were also produced. All alcoholic beverages have been banned since the revolution.
Climatic conditions and the nature of easily available building materials have naturally led to great variations in housing. In the north, the traditional village house has a roof thatched with reeds, now giving way to the less picturesque but more practical tin roof, while the town houses often have attractive red tiled roofs. On the plateau, where the rainfall is far less, village houses are usually constructed of mud and sun-baked bricks, with wooden beams supporting flat roofs used for sleeping on in summer. In really hot areas, ingenious wind-towers (bad-gir) that convey the slightest breeze to a cool underground chamber (zir-zamin) alleviate the summer heat.
Other distinctive characteristics of Persian domestic architecture are the enclosed courtyard (hayat), usually contaiing a small pool (howz), and a columned porch fronting the house and protecting it from heat.
From the earliest times Persians have always been particularly fond of gardens and trees, and Xenophon tells us of a beautiful garden designed by Cyrus the Younger, while Strabo says that tree- planting was included in the curriculum of young Persian nobles. The word "Paradise" is ultimately derived from an Old Persian word meaning an enclosed garden. Today, the trend towards apartment blocks in the larger cities makes it more difficult for the urban population to enjoy their own gardens, but this was compensated for by the growing number of city parks and green belts, which were doing much to reduce air pollution.
Iranian families seize every opportunity to spend a day in the country, and on Fridays and public holidays there is a mass exodus to nearby picnic spots and, increasingly, the Caspian seaside.
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