THE MAGICAL TALE OF NOVRUZ BAYRAMI

Novruz Bayrami has come to us from the depths of time. Its roots reach into the pre-Islamic period: the Zoroastrians welcomed the New Year after sunrise on the day of the spring equinox, 21 March. The night before Farvardin (New Day) they would prepare a round pie about half a metre in diameter. Men made the pastry - this was a special ritual symbolising the creation of the world - while women made the filling, the universe - curd cheese with apricots, plums, honey and nuts.

An eight-point star was placed on top with a circle and a dot at its centre, the symbol of Zoroastrianism. The circle (or rhombus) with a dot has been considered the symbol of the Sun since ancient times. In both astronomy and astrology a circle with a dot at its centre is the symbol of the Sun and bakhlava is obligatory on the Novruz holiday table, a rhombus with a dot at its centre (this is a small sun, a personal one for every family). The narcissi that are also a traditional decoration on the Novruz table have a meaning too. There are quite a few early flowers that could be part of this ritual, but our ancestors chose the narcissus because this flower is also an ancient Sun symbol. Even the Arabs, who sometimes used quite cruel methods to plant Islam here, could not eradicate the Azerbaijani people's attraction to the Sun as the source of life. However, when Islam finally took root in Azerbaijan and became native, everything found its place: Novruz Bayrami peacefully became one of the national holidays, so much so that ignorant people today think that it's a typical, religious, Muslim holiday.

Older than Zoroastrianism

But if you think about it, the origins of Novruz Bayrami may not even be in Zoroastrianism! An Azerbaijani academic, Professor M.G. Taxmasib, has noticed what appears to be a basic fact: if fire was sacred for Zoroastrians - they worshipped it, feared it - then it is unlikely that some of the familiar rituals would have arisen in their midst. Jumping over a bonfire in order to cast into the flames all one's misfortune and grief, leading sheep and cattle through the bonfire (for fertility), warming a tablecloth over a bonfire (for abundant food) - all this "defiling" of the bonfire would simply be blasphemy for followers of Zoroaster. So Novruz Bayrami is older than this religion and is a reflection of primordial perceptions of the world.

It is known for certain that Novruz marks the astronomical New Year that takes effect when the Sun enters the Zodiac sign Aries, the symbol of the rebirth of living nature and the end of the reign of winter. Human life is reborn and renewed with every rebirth of nature. Of course, this was even clearer to the agricultural workers and nomadic herdsmen of ancient times: the new year meant a new harvest, new young for the sheep and cattle. We modern urban dwellers, children of asphalt, for whom fruit and vegetables grow in the market all year round and a wide choice of meat appears as though by itself on the supermarket shelves, see the seasons only in the changing of the weather and the changing fashion collections that follow. Nevertheless, every March we lay the table with seven types of sweets and delicacies, plov, meat, grain dishes, a large clump of semeni (wheat shoots), painted eggs (green and red, the colours of spring and the sun), we light multi-coloured candles and expect major changes in our life.

One of the many traditions of Novruz, carefully preserved for millennia, is the tradition of fortune-telling for the coming year. Women maintain this tradition - men think women are too na?ve and believe any old rubbish. In fact women simply don't have any complexes about this and aren't afraid to look stupid so they enjoy telling their fortunes. You don't have to wait long for the results. It's true that the old traditions are being revived in our century and the reason is first of all scientific and technological progress.

No Harm in Fortune-Telling

One of the simplest rituals for centuries has taken place the night before the last Wednesday before Novruz (this is the time when most predictions were made). A raw egg is placed underneath the bed of someone who wants to know if their treasured wish will be granted in the coming year (and if the wish applies to the whole family, then the egg is placed under the food cupboard). Two pencils are put next to it, a red one and a black one (pieces of ochre and coal were used as the markers of fate in ancient times). In the morning if there is a red mark on the egg, then there is no need to worry, but if there is a black one, then, alas… One Novruz an artist acquaintance of mine, Sevil, to the mockery of her family, put an egg under her bed and a set of marker pens. Her wish was to have a personal exhibition in Turkey in the coming year. In the morning she saw an abstract composition on the egg of different coloured lines and dots, on top of which was written Mama in scarlet. Of course this was no miracle, Sevil's five-year-old son got to the egg before she did and seems to have inherited her artistic talent. The miracle was something else - what happened to Sevil that year: first she did have a personal exhibition, though not in Turkey, and second she had a daughter, who at Novruz had not been part of the plan at all.

Another prediction, of love and marriage, is vividly described in Aziz Caffarzada's novel "My Voice Can Be Heard Everywhere". Quite a large group of girls got together, put a bowl of clean water on the table covered with a cloth and every girl took off something that she was wearing and threw it into the bowl - a ring, an earring or a pin. Then each of the girls took turns to recite a folk verse after which they took one object out of the bowl without looking. What had been described in the verse would happen to the owner of the object in the coming year. Volumes could be written about how far the predictions come true in our times too. I'll talk about how modern girls modify this, many of whom don't know any folk verses by heart (this is a subject for a separate, sad discussion).

Instead of folk poems one group of my unmarried educated female friends recited lines from Nizami, Pushkin, Goethe, Akhmatova, Voznesenskiy, Esenin and other great poets, whose work includes many verses on love. A more unusual method was found by a group of teenage girls for whom at present (let's hope that it's just at present) lines such as "I remember the miraculous moment" speak only of the boredom and tedium of school literature lessons. The girls brought a pile of discs and each of them without looking played a song from someone else's disc, not knowing exactly what would be heard at any given moment. Fourteen-year-old Camila who hosted the session said that the walls were shaking from all their laughter, which is hardly surprising if you remember the quality of most contemporary pop lyrics.

Finally, one more way of predicting the future that has survived many millennia but is in serious decline now - listening at someone else's door. This behaviour is encouraged once a year, but what you hear will happen to you in the coming year and you can't avoid it. So the responsibility is great. So on this evening everyone should talk only about good things, this will bring blessings both to one's own home and to the fortune teller skulking at the door. Unfortunately, listening in the evening to what is going on behind the doors of the many flats in a multi-storey building is no easy task. Some security doors don't let any sound through, behind most of the others you can hear either the passionate sighs of soap opera heroes or a news report. However, even though psychologists say that in many families the television has long since become a member of the family, what is heard on TV cannot be considered the live speech of the residents, all the more so as you cannot ask the television to say only pleasant things (if only for just one evening).

Some people do manage to tell their fortune this way even now. A few years ago Irada, the night before the last Wednesday before Novruz, had almost given up her attempt in disappointment at the noise from the television behind several ill-chosen doors, when she finally heard people talking. A neighbour said to his wife: "Take your ring! I've just come in and found it straightaway!" A few days later Irada, who had still not got over her astonishment, found out by chance from her neighbour what had happened that evening. In the morning the neighbour had started the washing and had taken off her wedding ring and put it somewhere. The woman spent the rest of the day after the laundry looking for her ring but without success. When her husband got home from work, he found the ring straightaway. It was lying in an obvious place. You can't help wondering if this strange, almost mystical incident, happened so that Irada, a girl approaching the age of an old maid and therefore almost giving up the dream of marriage, should hear the precious words on that magical evening. Four months after the incident, a former classmate, now a businessman in Russia, unexpectedly courted Irada. His was a flying visit and so the engagement and wedding took place in just three weeks. 

The old ways of predicting the future are not dying out; they are just changing to meet the demands of time. Tell your fortune and be happy!