Nowruz, the Persian New Year, is usually a time of reunion and celebrations for Iranians around the world.
But this year, with a war in Iran and a government in that country that has suppressed dissent from its civilian population, members of the local Iranian community are navigating complex feelings.
Nowruz celebrations started Friday and last 13 days. Gholami said during that time Iranians visit with friends and family.
“Persian New Year is the first day of spring,” said Saeid Gholami. “Which, culturally, and if you think about it in nature, is like a new life in nature. After winter, everything is cold and dead, the trees are, like, dead. Then, spring starts and they start blossoming. That’s the beginning of the new year.”
Gholami, who spoke to GBH News at a rally Sunday in Copley Square in support of the the U.S. and Israeli military actions in Iran and a return to democracy in the country, describes it as conflicting emotions.
He said there’s anxiety as people have trouble communicating with loved ones in Iran as the government maintains an internet blackout.
“We don’t know what’s going on in Iran unless someone can call us over phone from Iran. They have one or two minute limits. And it costs them, like, so much money. We can’t call them, there’s no internet,” Gholami said. “So it’s a bittersweet situation. It’s Nowruz, it is New Year of Iran, but also the situation in Iran is nothing to be happy about.”
Zara Vahramian, who has been in Massachusetts for four years, was also at Sunday’s rally. She said members of the local Iranian community were happy after the U.S. decided to intervene in Iran and celebrated the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
For Vahramian, Nowruz is not just about celebration, but identity, too. She’s hopeful that the war will end soon and that Iran will transition to a secular democracy.
“So this year we celebrated Nowruz — not a very happy Nowruz, but as Iranians,” she said. “Celebrating the arrival of spring and hopefully a new dawn of freedom.”
For Reza Hassanzadeh, who is originally from Tehran and has lived in the U.S. for over 20 years, Nowruz celebrations have been muted after thousands of Iranians were killed in government crackdowns against protestors.
“We are all thinking of our people in Iran who have been suffering for the last 47 years,” he said. “But this year it’s special because we are hoping that in a few weeks Iran will be free from the clutches of [the] Islamic regime.”
