Ok we have: sabzeh, senjed, sib, seer, samanu, serkeh, and sumac…

[KittenKong]

We have a mirror. No goldfish were harmed.

Anyone else? 🎉

Eh !

New year!

Is this going to be play out like that bloody word riddle from a couple of years ago that just turned out to be the most infuriating troll thread ever?

Happy new year op!

So I have an Iranian friend and I know about the 7 S's, but what's the mirror/goldfish reference?!

Iranian new year?

@Floydthebarber

Is this going to be play out like that bloody word riddle from a couple of years ago that just turned out to be the most infuriating troll thread ever?

I wouldn’t say this if someone said ‘has anyone got their tree up yet?’.

If you know you know. It’s Persian new year.

Troll indeed - I’ve been around since all this was green fields…

Plenty of sonbol here in the spring sunshine. Happy new year.

Aah happy new year 🥳

@LlamaGiles

Happy new year op!

So I have an Iranian friend and I know about the 7 S's, but what's the mirror/goldfish reference?!

You often have a mirror as part of the haft-seen (so it’s a display of 7 items beginning with ‘s’) and poor wee goldfish were often put in bowls.

I rebelled many years ago and started popping a piece of carved carrot onto the bowl.

Yes, would love to know more about the goldfish and mirror!

So here’s a ‘traditional’ one with mirror and goldfish. Book can be poetry.

So the mirror is for ‘light’ (some people say it’s for ‘reflection’) and the fish are for Pisces.

Happy New Year! Took me a second but I got it ☺ remember it from Digging to America by Anne Tyler.

@Floydthebarber

Is this going to be play out like that bloody word riddle from a couple of years ago that just turned out to be the most infuriating troll thread ever?

Boswell, I remembered the name! It was just the strangest thread.

I am however very glad I clicked this thread as I knew nothing about Iranian new year. Happy New Year, OP. And such lovely weather!

Oh and the kids all get presents! There usually hyacinth all over the place.

Some people celebrate the Tuesday night before the Wednesday (Chaharshanbe Suri) which is Red Wednesday (a festival of light - so Zoroastrian in origins I think) before new year… and there’s a tradition of having big family picnic 12 days after new year.

Presents - food - music - lots of celebrations.

Happy new year OP!

@Floydthebarber Boswell has been solved. The OP didn’t have the riddle straight, even though she kept insisting she did, so people couldn’t solve it.

It was definitively solved a while back.

Happy New Year, OP! I hope you and your family are having a lovely celebration.

Oh also Happy New Year to you and others @KittenKong! I love learning about festivals in cultures I know little about. What sort of foods/dishes do you eat to celebrate?

I did recognise Sumac in amongst the other words. 😊 I cook with it!

Coincidentally I just spent a very happy couple of hours the other day watching YouTube videos of a group of women in an Iranian village making lots of wonderful dishes including a Fish Lavangi.

Mmmmm - well we would start with
Breads
Salad / herbs with walnuts and feta
Yoghurt with shalotts
Dolmeh (vine leaves)
Aubergine dip

Mains -
rice (of course) with herbs (Sabzi)
Fish - usually salmon
Yoghurt (always)
Kookoo - which is an omelette made with herbs (sometimes barberries/zereshk) and it’s bloody lovely.

Desert
Traditional is too sweet for me so cookies. The nicest ones are like vanilla cookies with jam in the middle and nuts on top - or like Mille feille (?) with nuts / chocolate on top. I don’t like the really crumbly ones made of chickpea flour.

And Gaz - how could I forget! That’s nougat with pistachios. Oh and pistachios and toot (dried mulberry - which are actually pretty gross). Lots of nuts and dried fruit.

Oh my pics didn’t load. Our local patisseries is like the one in the photo - you pick your size of box and tell them which cookies you want. They always hand over a small bag with a few to any kids on the shop (and some lavashak - which is fruit leather and wonderfully tart).

Oh and the gosh is served with norange - not orange - it’s like a bitterish orange (maybe like a lemon orange?). They are thin skimmed and not sweet!

Oh it all sounds fantastic and the pictures have got my mouth watering...😋😋

One of the dishes looked similar to that rice dish, are those crispy potatoes laid across the top?

I’m hungry now! I think I’m going to try to make kookoo today…

Also - if you can find young garlic (so it looks like spring onions) that in the sabzi rice is gorgeous. I must check my balcony as I was growing some garlic (I’d quite forgotten!)