Navroz, one festival with myriad hues

LUCKNOW: Every year, March 21 is synonymous with festivity for two ethnic religious communities, Shia Muslims and Zoroastrians, as both celebrate the festival of Navroz. This year, what makes this date more celebratory is the addition of New Year celebration for Kashmiri Pandits and Chaitra Navratri for Hindus.
“Navroz is a holy day for families and friends to get together and celebrate the advent of New Year, said Viraf Sadri, secretary of Lucknow Parsi Anjuman, adding, “As in Lucknow, there is no fire temple, we get together at the community hall for a prayer service in the evening, which includes lighting up a fire in an urn and traditional community dinner.
Despite being just a handful in number, the Parsi community follows all rituals from hanging a toran at the main entrance and making a colourful rangoli to cooking traditional food.
“Starting with a traditional dish called dhansak and fish curry, the feast ends with a dessert called Sevraho, made of suji and loads of dry fruits,” said Niloufer.
Kashmiri Pandits celebrate the advent of New Year with a big celebration and feasting. As it is the harvest festival, people visit each other with dry fruits.
Anuradha Baqaya Chak said, “Considered to be one of the most auspicious days, Navroz is one such festival where ladies love to dress up in new colourful saris and adorn themselves with traditional jewellery called Dejhor, with long hanging gold strings attached to the earnings.”
This year, instead of keeping the community dinner at Kashmir Bhavan, the community has decided to have the celebrations at veteran politician Swaroop Kumar Bakshi’s place. “She is one of the most respectable and reputed members of our community,” Chak added.
For Shia Muslims, Navroz means nazr or religious offerings both at homes and at Imambaras. This year, the colour for Navroz being black, all sweets and fruit eaten will preferably be black in colour.
“Gulab-jamun, black grapes and ‘kaali gajar ka halwa’ will be the main highlight of this years dastarkhwan,” said Heena Rizvi, preparing for the festival.