We’re both barska-hye (Armenian with families from Iran), and we were introduced to Nowruz from a young age. But the Nowruz we were introduced to was a fragment of how others would celebrate. We both grew up with family members who grew sabzeh, the sprouted wheat that sits at the center of the haft-sin table. Alina has a cousin who created all of the haft sins in her office when she emigrated from Tehran to Los Angeles. Cleo’s parents always threw their sabzeh into the Colorado River.

Nowruz is the New Year according to the solar calendar, falling each year alongside the spring equinox. Nowruz, which translates to “new day” in Farsi, is a celebration of renewal in nature that spans 13 days and a number of specific festivities and rituals. To ritualize a fresh start and the first days of spring, some of the activities include cleaning your home, wearing new clothes, and jumping over a fire. A central pillar of the holiday is building the haft-sin, a series of symbols carefully laid out for the duration of the 13 days. The standard haft-sin includes seven (“haft”) items that start with the letter S (“sin”):

1. Sabzeh > سبزه  > sprouted wheat, barley or lentils > for rebirth
2. Samanu (samani) > سمنو > sweet pudding made from wheat germ > for sweetness and fertility
3. Senjed > سنجد > oleaster > for love
4. Sir > سیر > garlic > for medicine and health
5. Sib > سیب > apple > for beauty and health
6. Somaq > سماق  > sumac > for the sunrise
7. Serkeh > سرکه > vinegar > for age and patience

What would it look like to re-envision the haft-sin? In thinking through our inherited rituals, we became curious about the possibilities of reimagining what it means to build an altar at this time each year. What happens when we step outside the “sin,” when our inherited rituals enter an in-between-ness?