Blowing kisses and sending love in Farsi via Skype, the extended Ansari-Nikfar family celebrated the Persian New Year on Thursday in Petaluma with all the traditions of the Old Country.
Apple Box cafe owners Zohreh Ansari and her husband Kayvan Nikfar marked Nowruz, or "New Day," with almost 20 members of the family, a few friends and customers of the popular riverside coffee shop.
Nowruz is celebrated on the first day of spring and is the start of the Persian calendar, and its traditions provide a symbolic new start for Persians.
The 13-day secular holiday, celebrated for thousands of years in almost 20 countries, brings entire families together to observe rituals including the "haft-seen," a table laden with seven items symbolizing rebirth, affluence, love, health, beauty, the sunrise and patience.
"It's the first day of spring, a time for cultivating the land, the leaves on the trees, the birds - for the bringing of life," said Nikfar, who immigrated to the United States in the 1970s and met his wife, also Iranian, in California.
Promptly at 9:57 a.m. Wednesday, the moment the sun crossed the celestial equator, the family erupted in kisses, hugs, smiles and whoops of happiness.
Family connected with relatives in Iran via iPhone, crowding into camera view and bridging the 7,500 miles between Petaluma and Iran with smiles and air kisses.
Four of Ansari's sisters celebrated Thursday in Petaluma, along with several nieces, nephews, in-laws and the matriarch, Betty Nikfar, Kayvan's mother.
In the Nowruz tradition, younger family members visit and pay respects to their elders, starting with the oldest. The elders typically give younger relatives money or gold coins.
Nikfar passed out crisp dollar bills, fresh from the bank, to her children and grandchildren.
"It feels so good to be together and have this special time," said Rezvan Lindsay, Ansari's sister, who has lived in England for 35 years and hasn't celebrated with her family in years. "It's so important to our culture."
A day earlier, some members of the family participated in a ritual where one jumps over an outdoor fire.
The fire represents life, Nikfar said, and jumping over it represents coming through the winter.
"When you jump over the fire, you are saying, 'I give you my yellowness (sickness) and I take red (life and energy) from you'," he said.
"It's being refreshed, like spring," said Ali Pournaghshband, Ansari's 17-year-old nephew who immigrated two years ago. "You give your bad things to the fire and take good things from it into the new year."
(You can reach Staff Writer Lori A. Carter at 762-7297 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com.)
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