March in Azerbaijan...

Dear readers, although its already April I still want to go back and write about March...

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March is all about holidays in Azerbaijan. We are celebrating Women's Day and continuously welcoming :) Novruz i.e. spring. Novruz is a holiday when people are kind of uniting with nature...since spring is coming, nature is awakening and spring equinox is happening and people are only joining this celebration...no holiday could be more natural than Novruz...

Thus four weeks in advance of actual Novruz we celebrate Tuesdays of water, fire, wind and earth...then celebrate Novruz eve and Novruz day itself. People cook numerous Novruz deserts (March is period of vitamin deficiency thus Novruz pastries are all about butter, nuts, sugar and spices to keep people going (now...who can dispute wisdom of ancestors...)) Gogal, shekerbura and pakhlava are pastries that are found on every table, semeni (growing wheat) sign of Novruz and prosperity of coming year is also there. Everybody is visiting each other and there are many, many other traditions that I hope to mention next year :) But for this year I want to stop here, wish everyone happy spring and post some Novruz photos that I have been collecting to share with you :)

getting ready for festive dinner...spring ash (plov)...every season has its own plov in Sheki and each is delicious in its own way...

Novruz must haves: fried nuts and wheat...

Novruz must have: semeni - growing wheat, symbol of Novruz - sign of well-being;
that cake in a form of gazelle was quite popular in Sheki formerly, not the case nowadays but still very cute to have on the table...not easy to keep children off it though :)

Another symbol of Novruz, pastry called gogal (gogal means round, small bread) that also has spicy filling in this case, is perfect for breakfasts and not only...crispy and delicious...this photo I took on my mobile in my mom's kitchen...God bless her... My favourite pastry of Novruz, pakhlava, as you can see photo was taken after we tried pakhlava :)...mom couldn't convince us to wait until its properly cooled... Pastries of Novruz: shekerbura and pakhlava...
Novruz must-haves: nuts etc...
decorated semeni :)