Happy International Day of Nowruz 1402 (2023) and happy 12th birthday to Crazy Eddie's Motie News

Nowruz Mubarak! Happy International Day of Nowruz AKA Persian New Year and happy 12th birthday of the blog! As I have the past two years, I'm sharing a video from KFMB Channel 8 to begin the celebration, CBS 8 explains the traditions of Nowruz, Persian New Year. One of those traditions on my blog entails embedding CBS 8 San Diego's videos!

CBS 8's Neda Iranpour explains how Persians celebrate Nowruz also known as the New Year. The celebration involves gathering around a table known as a Haftseen an elaborate sight, prepared several days in advance with "Haft" or seven items that start with "Seen" or the letter "S."

Foozool Khan left a comment reminding the station and its viewers that other people outside of Iran celebrate Nowruz.

I am an Iranian-American, thanks for celebrating Norooz and educating your audience. However, please be mindful that Norooz is not just celebrated by Iranians. Kurds in Turkey, Iraq and all around the world, people of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and many more, all are celebrating Norooz. Let's not exclude them from these great traditions.

Thanks for the reminder! Also, the Wikipedia entry for Nowruz lists even more countries that celebrate today.

By the way, not only is today Nowruz, it's also the start of the astrological year.* 8SA covered that in Astrology Day (March 21), Activities and How to Celebrate Astrology Day.

Astrology is a system of beliefs and practices that seeks to interpret and influence the positions and movements of celestial bodies in relation to human affairs and natural phenomena. It is based on the idea that the positions of the planets, the sun, and the moon at the time of a person's birth can have a significant influence on their personality, character traits, and life events.

Astrology has been practiced for thousands of years in many different cultures around the world. It is often used as a tool for understanding oneself, relationships, and the world around us. Astrology can be used to gain insight into various aspects of life, such as career, love and relationships, finances, health, and spirituality.

There are many different types of astrology, each with its own unique traditions, techniques, and beliefs. Some of the most commonly practiced forms of astrology include Western astrology, Vedic astrology, Chinese astrology, and Mayan astrology.

The narrator shows less respect for astrology in the video, calling it a pseudoscience. That fits with my official positions on astrology, "astrology is bunk, but it's fun bunk" and "harmless but fun nonsense that I'm presenting for entertainment purposes only."

Finally, it's the twelfth anniversary of my posting First post: Why this blog? I have a new birthday song to celebrate, Happy Birthday from Stevie Wonder.


I'm surprised it took me this long to find and use this. It's been up for almost five years. I might also re-use this for MLK Day next year.

I'll continue my celebration of completing another year of blogging and starting another with statistics followed by retrospectives on (Wayback) Wednesdays, (Throwback) Thursdays, (Flashback) Fridays and selected Sundays through the rest of this month and probably all of April. Those will start after I observe World Water Day tomorrow. Stay tuned.

*This is not a coincidence. From the Wikipedia entry for the Solar Hijri calendar: "Each of the twelve months corresponds with a zodiac sign; their names are the same as ancient Zoroastrian names from the Zoroastrian calendar – in Afghanistan on the other hand, the names of the zodiacal signs are used instead."