Sizdah Bedar (Getting Rid of Thirteen)
Leaving the house on the Thirteenth (in Persian: Sizdah) Day of Farvardin (the first month in Iranian calendar), and joyfully spending the day outdoors have been a national tradition since ancient times in Iran.
In modern times Iranians head for parks and greenspaces, have a picnic and throw away the Sabzeh (from the Haftseen Table of Nowruz).The Sabzeh is supposed to have collected the sickness, pain and ill fate hiding on the path of the family throughout the coming year. Sizdeh Bedar offers Iranians a chance to kick a go-together ceremony out in nature and enjoy the fresh smell of spring. Another tradition of Sizdah Bedar, is the knotting of blades of grass by the single girls in the hope to marry soon. Sizdah Bedar is also called as the Day of Nature, which is a day to celebrate man's friendship with nature and it shows that the Iranians have attached to the environment all throughout their glorious history.
This celebration has its roots in the Zoroastrian belief that laughter and joy symbolize the throwing away of bad thoughts. According to Zoroastrianism, bad thoughts are the gift of Ahreeman (the devil) and the celebrations of Nowruz and Sizdah Bedar will cleanse all bad thoughts.
Here is the poem of Sizdah Bedar composed by late Iranian poet Mohammad Hossein Shahriyar:
سیزده بدر
: (محمد حسین شهریار)
یار و همسر نگرفتم که گرو بود سرم
تو شدی مادر و من با همه پیری پسرم
تو جگر گوشه هم از شیر بریدی و هنوز
من بیچاره همان عاشق خونین جگرم
پدرت گوهر خود تا به زر و سیم فروخت
پدر عشق بسوزد ، که در آمد پدرم
عشق و آزادگی و حسن و جوانی و هنر
عجبا هیچ نیارزید که بی سیم و زرم
هنرم کاش گره بند زر و سیم بود
که به بازار تو کاری نگشود از هنرم
سیزده را همه عالم بدر امروز از شهر
من خود آن سیزدهم کز همه عالم بدرم
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