tehmina.org

Before dawn on 21 June a group of 11 people made their way to a meadow in Wiltshire. The journey was made to found and witness the Circle in the West, a new stone momument that will comprise seven ‘circles’ in homage to Stonehenge. The dawn was clearing as Sun was about to break the flat horizon and we were all quieted by the spectacle in front of us while archaeological surveyors plotted the various angles and positions of the sunrise in relation to the centre point of the Circle. The Ox-eye daisies (the day’s eyes) unfurled and stretched in recognition of it. (more…)

Equinox orange

As the celestial bull tosses the spinning earth from one of its horns to the other at the moment of the vernal (spring) equinox (this year at 18.26 GMT on 20 March), the Nowruz orange, so still in a bowl of clear water, wobbles. The new year has begun and we will find Spring and all its promises. Enjoy more images of Nowruz, the Zoroastrian and Persian New Year on my flickr set of Nowruz photographs and take away a flavour of how it is celebrated.

As blue skies struggle against the greyest, dampest of weather, I fondly think back to seasonal festivities in late December. Last year I celebrated Yalda, the Persian (and Zoroastrian) festival of the Winter Solstice. An early, thickly fogged morning travelling to Stonehenge with Sheherazad, Tom and Doug was rewarded with one of the most atmospheric experiences of my life. The fog ensured we wouldn’t see the sun rise over the horizon but instead we were treated to walking among the clouds, rubbing shoulders with the giants that are the bluestones and sarsens. You can get a taste of what it was like by looking at our Stonehenge Winter Solstice photos. The new sun did emerge from the clouds fleetingly and I was content to say hello before it went off to show itself to others. In the evening, we celebrated Yalda with the Southampton Persian Society at Yalda Persian Restaurant. Scents of saffron, fluffy, buttery rice, flat breads pleasingly blistered in the cloam oven sprinkled with toasted caraway and sesame seeds, aromatic lamb and hot mint tea permeated all around as we divined the poems of Hafiz, ate, drank and laughed.

You can read my Zoroastrian celebration of Yalda article if you like?