Celebrating Nowruz & the Spring Equinox
20th March | Nowruz | Spring Equinox
The Spring equinox is the day in the astronomical calendar when the balance between night and day is equal, before our days start getting longer as we enter the Spring and Summer season.
It is also the day that Nowruz is celebrated, the Persian New Year, which if you ask me makes a lot more sense than the 31st December. Isn't it lovely that the New Year is celebrated when everything is slowly coming back to life, with plants peeping through and birds singing? That feels like new beginnings to me.
The main reason I am writing about this is because the first ever candle I made for Burning Bright is called Nowruz. Up until that point I had been making bespoke candles for friends, as a little bit of creative therapy when I was off sick from work for 6 months with a head injury. Mixing up essential oils, painting and drawing and making pinch pots was the perfect healing therapy I needed at that point in my life.
When it came to my first candle launch my darling friend of over 20 years Roxy, invited me to make a candle for her jewellery business Moznabi Jewellery and the brief was 'Nowruz'.
As part of the Nowruz tradition, a Haft Sin table is set up as an alter to celebrate the coming of the new year, with many symbolic elements present, such as mirrors, herbs, traditional sweets and sometimes even a gold fish.
We drew inspiration from the Haft Sin table, using as many traditional herbs that I get my hands on, cardamom; synonymous with Persian culture and the flavours of Iran, rose geranium; the symbol of beauty and perfection and cinnamon; an important spice from ancient times.
This may sound a little over whelming but the herbs really offer a beautiful top note; the cardamom and rose create a spicy and floral mid note and the cinnamon with some added cedarwood create the perfect base note to ground the whole fragrance.
The candle is then topped with an Aventurine crystal, the crystal of new beginnings and luck, perfect for New Year; a cardamom pod and a rose bud, all reflecting the ingredients inside and symbolism of Nowruz.
The Nowruz candle stands as one of my favourite candles to make, such an unusual and beautiful brief, full of symbolism, tradition and made for someone close to my heart.
It has been so wonderful selling Nowruz in person and seeing peoples reactions, a lady I met in Richmond who was travelling around Europe actually cried when she smelt Nowruz, as it evoked such a memory for her.
It has also been so lovely to see people point and shout 'Look! Nowruz!', for the people who know the tradition and celebrate it. Even if you aren't celebrating Nowruz its such a beautiful and complex fragrance, I really haven't smelt anything else like it and the fragrance really does fill the room.
The Nowruz candle comes in two formats; an 8 hour candle in a bag found here: Nowruz Candle in a Bag and then a Nowruz Gift Set, which contains a large 8 hour, a medium 6 hour and small 3 hour candle, all wrapped beautifully in a box and hand drawn description card.
If you are new to Burning Bright, a little introduction that about our brand...every single pot is handmade, all ingredients are completely natural, harnessing the power of essential oils and aromatherapy and we use only 100% natural soy wax. The perfect little bit of luxury in your life.
Anyway, happy Nowruz, happy Spring and roll on brighter days x