Persian Parade in New York
Every culture celebrates the change in seasons in some fashion, but few
are as ancient, colourful and full of symbolism as the traditional ceremonies
for the beginning of the Persian New Year, or Nowruz(1),
marking the first day of spring.
Nowruz(2)
is all about hope. With the first day of spring, the New Year celebration
represents rebirth and hope - and Nowruz is a way for the children to celebrate
and learn about their cultural background, just like so many other people in America
have done.
The range and variety of Nowruz celebrations reflect the richness and
diversity of Persian culture in the United States, which includes the people of
many nations and ethnic backgrounds that were once part of the greater Persian
Empire(3).
Highlight of Nowruz celebrations in the United
States has been
annual Persian Parade in Madison
avenue New York
(4).
As of March of 2004, few visionary Persian Americans used this majestic
celebration as a platform to not only advertise and celebrate the deep culture,
but more than anything, pass the Persian Identity and Pride to our next
generation.
The New York
Persian Parade was established in the State of New York as a not-for-profit organization in
2004. The mission of the Persian Parade is to promote and introduce
Persian culture (5),
its historical achievement in art(6),
folklore(7),
science(8),
and the Persian civilization(9) to the general public.
Its main celebration is the Nowruz Parade and Festival in New York City. Nowruz, the New Year, is celebrated in Iran as
well as many other nations such as Afghanistan (10),
Uzbekistan (11),
Azerbaijan(12), etc(13).
In March 2010 and after some years struggle of Persian
community in United
States,
The House of representative passed the Nowruz resolution (H.
Res. 267) by a vote of 384 to 2. In this process, Congressman
Michael Honada worked hard to promote and pass the resolution. The resolution recognizes the cultural and
historical significance of Nowruz, expresses appreciation to Persian Americans
(14) for their
contributions to American society, and wishes Persian Americans, the people of Iran,
and all those who celebrate the holiday a prosperous new year. The passage of
the resolution marks the first time that the U.S. Congress has officially
recognized the Persian New Year. The Nowruz resolution is part of Persian
community’s efforts to foster greater understanding of Persian culture and
heritage as well as to project an accurate and positive image of the Persian
American community that reflects Persian’s true values and achievements.
Nowruz is celebrated not only in New
York, but also in some other U.S cities as
well as in Canada
(17).
One of the Major Nowruz celebrations take place every year in Los-Angeles (18)
or as it’s called Tehran-geles.
Since office time of President Clinton, most of the
years, the presidents of the United
States of America send
congratulation message directly to the Persian people and other nations who
celebrate Nowruz. Only in March 2009,
President Obama sent message to Islamic regime (19) in Iran,
which was a big mistake and was blamed by many Persian as well as some U.S
politicians. But after all, he corrected his mistake and send message directly
to the people of Iran
(20)(21)(22).
Once The Persian parade started in 2004(15) in New
York, only some hundred attendances,
mainly curious passers- by and tourists showed this colourful ceremony in
Madison Avenue.
Nevertheless, through the last years, until the 9th
annual Parade(16)
that was held along the 12 blocks of Madison Avenue on April 15th,
the number of attendances grew rapidly to showcase the great Persian culture.
The last Event drew a record cheering crowd of Persian Americans, curious
tourists, and mainstream Americans. Many Iranians travelled across the ocean to
witness this majestic event. The colourful parade, with a large number of
activities, music bands, dance ensembles, flags, floats, performers, marchers,
and dignitaries, was again an impressive display of Persian Pride.
Persian Parade, which is a none-profitable cultural
organization with no affiliation to any political or religious group, wishes
that the 10th parade will be held in 2013 in New
York again and can attract even more
attendances to this annual ceremony.
To finish this small introduction of Persian Parade in
New York,
I attach the collection videos of Parade in 2012 in three parts. In these three
sample videos, we can see that, every ethnic Persian group (23)
represents it’s own Music, dance and colourful cloths.
Videos description:
The first video, after a short introduction, continues
with the National Hymn of Iran (24)
and the United
States (up to
minute 4:18).
From 6:50
to7:20 M. Zoroastrians (25) marched with
their famous school of thoughts (Good Thoughts- Good Words- Good Deeds). From 7:32 to
8:30M.the Hajji Firuz (26)
danced and sang. From 8:50
to10:28 M.
Happy Nowruz Sign passed by with dance and joyful
music. In 10:34 M.
“ Arash the Archer” (27) that
is a heroic Persian oral tradition and folklore is shown. From 11:16 one of the
Persian ethnic group- Turkmen (28)
people danced and showed off. From 12:19
to 2:24
M.in second video is Flag- shown, includes Persian (29),
Forouhar(30) and
Derafsh-kaviani(31).
The second video from 2:04 to 3:51 M. another Persian ethnic group-
Armenian (32)
marched. From 4:11
to 6:03,
Sponsor groups and Persian school’s children showed their attendance. From 6:04 to 6:43 M. the sing
of Persian Gulf (33) and bandari dance (34) went on. From 7:37- 8:14, we can
watch Kurdish dance and music (35). From 8:16- 8:38,
اشکان رضوی