April 13: The 13th day of Iran’s New Year’s festival is set aside for picnics, as families head for the countryside laden with ripe melons, marinated salads, and meats for grilling. The hills are alive with folksingers and clowns. Passing up an opportunity for al fresco dining is courting disaster since this day is thought to be the unluckiest of the year to stay indoors. This springtime holiday’s key ritual involves tossing sabzehs–clusters of seeds that have been sprouting for weeks in pans of water set in an honored place in the house–into streams or into the wind with a wish for the new year.
