March 24 2013
This week saw the spring equinox although it still feels like the middle of winter especially with the icy blasts and snow on the ground. The equinox also means its the Iranian New Year or 'Nowruz' - its 1393 this year. Tradition says it dates back 15,000 years to before that last ice age when we transitioned from hunter gatherers to farmers. Nowruz begins with spring cleaning and the laying of the Hafseen - ancient symbolic representations. Here is our table..
Haft-Seen (Persian: هفتسین) or the seven 'S's is a traditional table setting of Nowruz, the traditional Iranian spring celebration. The haft seen table includes seven items all starting with the letter seen (س) in thePersian alphabet. Haft-Seen was originally called Haftchin (Haftĉin) derived from the words Chin (چین), meaning "gather; pile up"[1] and Haft (هفت), the number 7.[2] The Haft Chin table includes the following items which symbolize Zoroastrian yazatas or divinities such as ātar and asmān.
1. Mirror - symbolizing Sky
2. Apple - symbolizing Earth
3. Candles - symbolizing Fire
4. Golab - rose water symbolizing Water
5. Sabzeh - wheat, or barley sprouts symbolizing Plants
6. Goldfish - symbolizing Animals
7. Painted Eggs - symbolizing Humans and Fertility
This week has been busy getting ready for China.. I had to make four trips to London to get our visas which I did not enjoy one bit. So much effort, resource and cost just to visit another country. I also put a lot of effort into getting my talks ready. They are much longer than I normally give so I had to create a lot more content than I usually include. But the time I have means I can I include a couple of videos and discussion points and I hope to be able to gain feedback from students on my ideas. I demonstrated to myself once again that preparing to give a talk is an important learning process. This time I have ended up with a much better appreciation of the theorists that lifewide learning can draw upon. Preparing for a talk and creating the resources to communicate sense making is a great way of learning. I updated my Beijing visit web page with the materials I developed.
This week saw the spring equinox although it still feels like the middle of winter especially with the icy blasts and snow on the ground. The equinox also means its the Iranian New Year or 'Nowruz' - its 1393 this year. Tradition says it dates back 15,000 years to before that last ice age when we transitioned from hunter gatherers to farmers. Nowruz begins with spring cleaning and the laying of the Hafseen - ancient symbolic representations. Here is our table..
Haft-Seen (Persian: هفتسین) or the seven 'S's is a traditional table setting of Nowruz, the traditional Iranian spring celebration. The haft seen table includes seven items all starting with the letter seen (س) in thePersian alphabet. Haft-Seen was originally called Haftchin (Haftĉin) derived from the words Chin (چین), meaning "gather; pile up"[1] and Haft (هفت), the number 7.[2] The Haft Chin table includes the following items which symbolize Zoroastrian yazatas or divinities such as ātar and asmān.
1. Mirror - symbolizing Sky
2. Apple - symbolizing Earth
3. Candles - symbolizing Fire
4. Golab - rose water symbolizing Water
5. Sabzeh - wheat, or barley sprouts symbolizing Plants
6. Goldfish - symbolizing Animals
7. Painted Eggs - symbolizing Humans and Fertility
This week has been busy getting ready for China.. I had to make four trips to London to get our visas which I did not enjoy one bit. So much effort, resource and cost just to visit another country. I also put a lot of effort into getting my talks ready. They are much longer than I normally give so I had to create a lot more content than I usually include. But the time I have means I can I include a couple of videos and discussion points and I hope to be able to gain feedback from students on my ideas. I demonstrated to myself once again that preparing to give a talk is an important learning process. This time I have ended up with a much better appreciation of the theorists that lifewide learning can draw upon. Preparing for a talk and creating the resources to communicate sense making is a great way of learning. I updated my Beijing visit web page with the materials I developed.
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