On Norouz, the two-week Persian New Year celebration that begins on the first day of spring, Persian families lay out a special table covering onto which they place dishes with symbolic elements. Called haft-seens—literally "seven-dishes setting," each one beginning with seen, the Persian letter S—these ceremonial settings incorporate the seven heralds of life: love, patience, rebirth, prosperity, spice of life, spring, and health. This ancient festival is a sensorial experience marked by peace and happiness, and it is said that the mood on this day will persist throughout the year.

Our Mini Haft-Seen kits introduce kids K-6 to the richness of Persian culture through the symbols and history of this major celebration. These kits serve as a valuable tool for promoting intercultural understanding, as schoolchildren can now add Norouz to the variety of holidays celebrated during the year. In this way they can discover both the pleasures and values different traditions hold in common, as well as what makes each tradition distinctive and worthwhile.

Created by teacher Homa Hanjani Tabatabai, each kit contains an elegantly designed 8.5" x 11" board, small plastic cups, and sample ingredients. A Story and Coloring Book that details the significance of each item and gives the historical background for the ritual is also included. Samples of representative ingredients include wheat grass (sabzeh), symbolizing rebirth; garlic (seer), used to promote good health; vinegar (serkeh), symbolizing age and wisdom; a coin (sekeh), symbolizing prosperity; sumac (somagh), a tart condiment symbolizing the spice of life; oleaster (senjed), the fruit of the lotus tree, which symbolizes love; and a hyacinth flower (sonbol), symbolizing the renewal of the spring season.

Hanjani Tabatabai devised the kits in response to a request from the exemplary cultural program at San Francisco's Asian Art Museum. At an enthusiastically received presentation at the museum in March 2001, over two hundred children participated, learning about the Norouz celebration as they eagerly created their own miniature haft-seens.

In March 2002, we gave five New Year presentations for elementary school classes and community youth gatherings, including two at the Kittredge School in San Francisco and one apiece at the Burlingame Montessori School, the American Iranian Youth Community Center in Pleasanton, and the Town School for Boys in San Francisco. The success of these classroom visits encouraged us to expand the reach of this important educational project.

We are currently planning workshops in the Bay Area to equip elementary school teachers with the tools to make their own schoolroom presentations about Norouz and Iranian culture, with the Mini Haft-Seens as an entertaining, hands-on vehicle for this vital exploration. The workshops will be two hours long with a fifteen-minute break (we'll serve tea and Persian sweets for an additional taste of tradition!). Workshops are tentatively planned for each Saturday in February and the first two Saturdays in March.

Your tax-deductible donation will allow Butimar Productions to produce and distribute these Mini Haft-Seens to interested Bay Area schools and community groups, to develop and hold teachers' workshops, and to promote intercultural activities. For more information on how to contribute to this project, select the Support This Project link on the left.

To receive a teachers' packet with information on Norouz and the workshops or to sign up for a teachers' workshop please contact us at info@butimarproductions.org. To order kits for your home or school please use our Mini Haft-Seen Program Kit Order Form.






About the Author of
Celebrating Norouz, the Persian New Year
Josiane Cohanim was born in Iran, raised in Switzerland, and educated in the United Sates. She graduated from Wheaton College with a BA in French and Spanish literature and received an MA in French literature from Stanford University. A member of Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) since 1992, Ms. Cohanim employs her knowledge of the French, Persian, and Spanish languages and cultures in her children's stories.