The Celebration of Tirgan is hold on the 13th evening of the month Tir according to the ancient calendar of
Mazandaran, which is coincident with the 12th evening of the month Aban according to the official Jalali calendar of
Iran.
The Celebration of Tirgan (also called Tir Maah Sizde Sho and Laale Sho) is holy occasion near people of
Mazandaran.
This celebration is for the memory of the bravery of fabulous ancient Iranian archer, Arash Kamaangir.
This occasion is also called the Tabari New Year in some resources. The occasion was celebrated in most villages across
Mazandaran province, but it has been forgotten and is held just in a few mountainous villages nowadays.
At the evening of the Tirgan celebration, close relatives go to the elder's homes, prepared before, and spend hours together enjoying time foods and entertainments.
The family whose son has newly engaged thinks of Sizdehi, a gift by the groom's family for the
...see more bride's family which usually includes apple, quince, Pomegranate, Sea-buckthorn, grape, hazelnut, walnut, almond, pistachio, pea, raisin, Fig, Date, cube sugar, sugar, tea, galipot, bean and other nutrition besides pants and shoes.
People believe they should have 13 kinds of food beside salt and water and stay awake for hours. The occasion is called Laale Sho because a person in disguise, blackened face, and cover on his head with a wood (shish) in his hand, who like a dumb doesn't speak, enters homes.
He hits the things and animals with this wood which is believed to be blessed. The wood is as a symbol of the arch of Arash, and he hits animals and trees, specially the barren ones, with the wood in order to facilitate their fertility.
Family members keep the wood until the year after. The person leaves the home after getting something as gift.
Other works customarily done in the occasion include washing and ablution, having diversity of foods at the evening, reciting poems of great poets like Hafiz, Firdausi, Amir Pazevari, Taleb Amoli, Hafiz omen, jug omen, spilling water to
each other and meeting with the elders
