Photos: Persian New Year celebration in Oakland

The Persian community celebrated their New Year at the second annual Nowruz Market 1403 in Oakland on Saturday afternoon.

The small but crowded event held at a former Oakland fire station on Alice Street, featured arts and crafts, handmade jewelry, food like shirini (sweets), torshi (pickled vegetables), preserves and other tasty traditional treats.

An altar set with the “half seen” or seven “s” which in Farsi means seven items starting with the letter “s” such as apple, garlic, wheat, hyacinth flower, sumac, vinegar and jujube or dried fruit. Other items included in the spread are a mirror and a candle which represent light, gold coins for prosperity, eggs for fertility, a bowl of goldfish for life, and a sour orange in a bowl of water symbolizing planet Earth, explains event planner Lily Aroosi, a native of Iran. Also, a poetry book by Persian poet Rumi is a must, she added.

Nowruz is celebrated on the spring equinox, March 20, and lasts for 13 days. And on the last day everyone goes out to nature, Aroosi says, adding that the wheatgrass grown in the display is thrown in running water carrying hopes and dreams for the year ahead.