At least a month before New Year, families start the thorough spring cleaning that must be completed before the beginning of the new year. All furniture must be moved, floors cleaned and polished, wardrobes cleaned out and tidied up, and curtains washed; in short, everything in the house must be cleaned, and whatever is no longer useful or service able given away or thrown out. The physical cleaning out of the house corresponds to a psychological and spiritual reality, as in the saying, “out with the old and in with the new.” Everybody in the family, but especially children, will have new clothes and shoes. This is a time of new beginnings, not only in the physical world by buying or having new clothes made, but spiritually too: Iranians make a point of wiping the slate clean, sorting out differences and making reconciliations, so that the new year will find everybody in the best frame of mind. About ten days before Noruz the women of the family soak lentils or wheat until they sprout. Then they spread them on a plate and cover them with a piece of gauze which is kept moist. By New Year’s Day the sprouts have grown to a height of about four inches (ten centimeters). They are then tied with a red ribbon and become one of the main items, the sabzeh, for the New Year decorative spread (sofreh haft sin) (Source: Among Iranians).
Haji Firuz, Heralder of Nowruz: Aesthetic Sense of Custom in Iran
