For one of the smallest communities in the world, festivals and traiditons matter a lot and we as a community need to make sure that these traditions are kept alive and our children also learn them to carry it forward. God knows in how many years our community will go extinct. The Parsi community is now a handful left in the world with just around 100K total, it is less in numbers and not more.

My community numbers keep dropping year on year. The younger generation do not want to get married, many of them do not want children. As the older generation keeps passing away and the younger generation not building up, it is a matter of concern. Anyways today I am not going to talk about this. Yesterday was Parsi New Year.

Why it falls in August, and not January 1st?
Well, we parsis follow Shahenshai calendar. Over centuries due to no leap years followed in this calendar, the date has kept shifting. This calendar was established by King Jamshed, one of the legendary persian king, and since then it has been followed. We have names for each 30 days of the month. Every 4 years the date moves ahead, due to the leap year cycle.

Pur religion is based on 3 basic principles of life; Good Thoughts, Good Words and Good Deeds. Before the Ner Year day, 10 days are spent in prayers and rituals for our loved ones who have passed away. We believe that with these prayers their soul will progress higher in the other world and these prayers will bring peace to the souls. It's also a way of remembering them fondly for the time spent together. Normally people do it for around 5 years, there is no limit as such. It is individual's choice. For my father the prayers were done for 15 years, he had died in too much pain and his life was very difficult, so it was my wish to keep sending him good energy through these prayers in his world.

On the New Year day, we visit the Fire Temple, do our prayers and then there is friends and family gathering. Our community is known for the food. We have some very authentic food dishes like Patra ni Machi, Salli Boti, Dhanshak and many other such dishes. We are foodies and we live to eat, that's what the world says about us. Though these days everyone has become health conscious. But still on this day, everyone gives in to all their diet restrictions and enjoys the time with their loved ones.

Being away from home, this New Year, me and hubby celebrated it with out friends here in Muscat. In Muscat there is no Fire Temple, so morning I completed the prayers at home. I did some Rangoli at my home entrance and lit up diyas. It is like any other auspicious day celebrations. Later in the evening, our community members had booked a hall in a hotel and we all came together to celebrate our special day with music, dance, games, drinks and yummy food.

Sharing some pictures from my special day.

With hubby :-)