New Years Day in Iran is celebrated on March 21, and is called Nowruz. They use the Solar Hijri calendar. Currently the year in Iran is 1402. Talk about it being hard to adjust to living in a foreign country. I lost track of even what year it was.
They celebrate Nowruz like we celebrate New Year’s Eve, but also differently. I would soon find that out the first “New Years Day” there. The villagers would build small bonfires and the kids would jump over them. OK that was different.
Then one couple from the village showed up with a stainless steel five-gallon bucket with some kind of clear looking liquid in it. They had one glass, dipped it into the bucket and handed it to me to drink. Sharing a common drinking glass is common in their culture. I had never tasted such a drink before. It was sweet as sugar and tasted like I was eating a rose petal. It was rose water.
Then a few minutes later another couple showed up and another and another. That day I must have consumed close to 15 glasses of rose water. It was their custom to go house to house in the village on Nowruz and share rose water with everyone. It would have been rude to reject their gift.
“For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.” 1 Timothy 4:4-5 NIV
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