In less than four hours, those of us in Northern Hemisphere enter the vernal equinox and that means Spring is officially here, although we are still somewhat freezing.

It might not be a big deal in many places, but we celebrate it as the moment of beginning of our New Year and I'm really trying to stay awake, since it is going to be at 3:37am our local time this year.

Well, our decorations are already in place and I thought I share a picture, since it is so cute this year.




Happy Spring everybody!

Nice pic, Afs. Very spring-like and cheery.

It's hard to celebrate spring, as we have about 8 inches of snow in the yard right now. But the sun is out, and it's starting to melt, so that's a good thing!!

It's been a beautiful day here. The temperature got up to around 70º, which is awesome.

Tonight, it's gonna get down into the 20s, and probably won't get out of the 40s tomorrow.

But the cold weather is supposed to move out by the weekend!

Afs, very nice photo. It reminds me of Easter.

Thanks for the spring picture. I'm feeling warmer already. Good luck staying up.
Spring arrives here, I guess, around 8:30 PM EST.

Thanks guys!

Yes, colored eggs does make it look like Easter, not sure when we have made it part of our New Year decorations really.

Winter hasn't decided to leave here yet. We would've had lots of blossoms by this time every year, but it is somewhat chilly here yet to see them right now.

I think I'm going to take a short nap... lol

Do me a favor... don't pack away any more of your winter clothes (for at least another month).

Its supposed to get down to around 15° here tonight... I guess the only spring I'll see tonight will be this one:

Thanks for the lovely picture Af's. It really puts me in a Springy mood. The snow here is just about gone and it is in the 40's right now and the rest of the week it's suppose to be in the high 50's.

I'm glad winter is almost over

So we made it, even it being in such early hours of morning... This is after kiss kiss, and I'm not sure how my family feel about showing up here, so it is just me:



We usually put these decorations on a table cloth on the ground and sit around it, but we were afraid since it being in the middle of the night, someone knock themselves off over it while sleep-walking.

Heyyyy.... who's that babe???

Nice pic, afs.

Lovely, Afs. We're always so happy when you share your photos!!

My Iranian friend tells me that it is new year there. If so, Happy New Year

Very nice pics Afs! Springy and colorful indeed.

Our spring here started with a few showers, but like everyone else, I look forward to spring as well. Not SC's spring, but regular ol' springtime.


TIS

Maybe I shouldn't say this, but Monday night I went to the front porch and noticed that the snow shovels that I left there were gone. My wife said she put them away because we won't need them again this season. This is a more dangerous curse than my winter coat.

Is putting your coat away the same as washing your car, and then it rains?

Spring can't come quick enough for me. I'm tired of the winter blues. There's something about the smell in the air, and the flowers blooming. With the warm weather we had before my garden is starting to grow already. Of course, with that comes the weeds too. I'm not ready to get down on my hands and knees and start pulling yet.

One thing about spring I don't like is the pollen. I am not looking forward to the watery eyes sneezing my ass off. Oh well gotta take the good with the bad.

It works on the same scientific principle.

Thanks SC, SB and TIS!

Yes svsg, beginning of Spring is when we observe our New Year. Thanks a lot.

I managed to get four hours sleep this morning and then we were off to seeing my grandma. I can't wait to go to bed tonight. Of these four days off we've, all will be spend on going to friends and family and have them over, as some of distant family members are only being visited during New Year holidays. Busy days ahead. lol

In that case, Happy New Year!

All of the ice has melted in the streets but I still have a ten foot stretch of ice around the side of my house (that I must walk over to get out) where the shade prevails. Temps are supposed to stay above freezing for the foreseeable future so it looks like it REALLY may be spring now.

Afs, isn't there some kind of religious tradition in this celebration where you have to place 7 items that are symbolic of something on the dinner table?

I had to take my car into the shop this morning for an oil change. I was sitting in the waiting area, and every time someone came and went, I received a blast of freezing cold air. I hear that it might get to 60 tomorrow, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Spring?? If a robin showed up now, it would die of frostbite.

Happy Near year Af's. I hope you have alot of fun with visiting family and friends and your activities. How is the weather there now?

Thanks SC!

DC,

Yes, and no. It is not a religious custom, or if it has been, it could've been a Zoroastrian religious custom which I can't rule out, but this has been the way Persians were celebrating New Year for over 2500 years, regardless of kind of their religion.

We put seven items that begin with the sound "S" on a tablecloth, calling it "Haft Seen" (Seven Ss). Seven of these items have to be of these: grass, garlic, vinegar, apples, coins, a kind of seasoning and a dessert usually have to be there as they begin with sound "S" in Persian.

Then eggs are symbol of creation and new life, and gold fishes are as symbols of life have been part of these decorations. Mirror and candles are also part of it as symbols of truth and warmth of life, also cleansing. But certainly the main item of this tablecloth must be something green, called "Sabzeh", symbol of renewal of nature and rebirth of the Earth, after being seemingly dead, as "Norouz" (New Days) is celebration of rebirth of the nature.

Festivities had been lasted five days in some periods of history, but later increased to 13 days of spring, and in the 13th day people spend the day out in the nature to mark the end of spring festivities.

In our work schedule, we've the four first days off, and then the 12th and the 13th. However schools are closed for the entire two weeks.

Thanks Mig! The weather is still a bit cold, but certainly the coldest is 4 degrees over freezing point, so we can't complain. After today the sun gets a little more time each day to shine and hopefully it will get warmer and we get to see some blossoms in 13 days, just in time to have a great picnic.

Thank you for the education Afs.

Enjoy your festivities!

You're welcome and thank you.

I guess the kids getting out of school there would be like my son's spring break here. My son's starts on the 30th and he will be out for a week. Do you have any more pic's you can share?

Well, this batch are all family photos, but I guess I can post a picture of my nieces and nephew, three are my sister's and two are my brother's kids. I may take this off later though.




But I'll try to take more photos if we had a sunny day on the 13th. I hope we do, because these few past years it has been windy and sometimes we've even had scattered rain. But I'll share more photos of sights this spring; Esfahan looks its best during April and May.

What a nice looking group Afs!!! Thanks for sharing.

As far as spring goes, even CA is a little cooler and cloudy here than normal. Of course, not on the same level as back East, but we too are ready for spring.

TIS

Thanks TIS. It seems that spring is later than usual for all this year.