Celeb photos celebrating Nowruz

These include seed sprouts (usually wheat, oats and other seeds, which symbolize rebirth), senjed (also known as silverberry or Persian olive, which is thought to spark love), garlic (protection), apple (fertility), sumac (love), vinegar (patience), and samanu, a pudding made of sprouted wheat (affluence). The table also can include a Koran, eggs, mirrors, and poetry.

Though Nowruz is old, the table tradition isn’t: As A. Shapur Shahbazi notes in Encyclopedia Iranica, it only came into effect in the last century.