I was incredibly honoured to be invited to attend the celebration of Persian New Year with some new friends this weekend. I have not been fortunate enough to encounter any Persians before and I have been delighted by the sophistication, culture and warmth of these second generation British persians. Although not officially Persian New Year until Wednesday, the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane played host to a fabulous gathering of Persian families, a minister and the Persian singer Arash.

Organised by a Heritage Art Foundation and with references to former times before the country’s current leadership, the new year celebrations at the Grosvenor Hotel marked the first day of spring and, logically, the first day of the year. 1386 by the Persian calendar, the New Year was heralded to the sounds of the funky Arash who had come over from Sweden especially for the event.

The evening kicked off with a welcome photograph and drinks before we were summoned to dinner by the toast master. With television cameras recording and playing back instantaneously for the guests. The ballroom was sumptuously decorated with beautiful flower arrangements on each table and the piece de resistance of the festival table at one end of the room.

When presented with such a different culture, it is important to research and investigate customs in an effort to understand the people. I am sure that I will have missed many of them, but this is what I understand so far: Traditions for the new year include spring cleaning of the house, visiting friends and relations and the purchase of something new to wear for the celebrations. Like Spring in any area of the world, it is about rebirth and renewal and the Iranian nation seems to hold this very close to their hearts. Part of the traditions of Noruz (Norooz) are to have a Haft Seen - a table containing the seven items beginning with s - including items like grass and fish - all of which represent such basic and fundamentals as joy, love, fertility etc.
The official list is (possibly not in the right order, so please forgive me):
sabzeh - which is a grain such as wheat or barley that is grown in a dish and symbolises rebirth
sir - which is garlic, symbolising medicine and healing
samanu - which is a sweet that is made from wheat germ and symbolises wealth
senjed - a dried fruit which symbolises love
sib - apples symbolising beauty and health
somaq - berries which symbolise sunrise
serkeh - vinegar which symbolises wisdom and patience

The New Year Celebrations contained the traditional meal of fish and rice created by masterchefs especially brought in for the occasion. The culmination of the meal was the beautiful array of fresh fruits and sweets adorning tables on two sides of the ballroom plus, of course, the traditional mint tea.

The dancing began after a charity auction raised over £50K for Heritage Art projects and top European Persian singer, Arash,

graced the stage with his band to blast out a range of funky and his world cup football song to the delight of the audience.

Ladies looked fabulous and the gentlemen looked terribly stylish, too. Children also were welcomed to the event and the Gorsvenor Ballroom resounded to the happy voices and laughter of nearly 2000 people. A completely new experience for me and a fantastic night that I feel priviledged to be a part of and very honoured to be invited to, which showed the culture and elegance of the Persian nation within Britain#.