New clothes on New Year’s Eve

Iranians have a traditional custom of buying new clothes on New Year’s Eve: new clothes for the New Yea.

However, some may celebrate it with simply washing and ironing the clothes they already have. The elders might also spend the money on new clothes for the children, not for themselves. They might just patch up their old clothes without buying new ones.

This is one of the exciting customs leading up to a new year. Iranians purchase the spring clothes at the end of the winter before the New Year.

We usually keep them and wear them right after New Year starts. In fact, on the first day of the New Year, we have the new clothes on.

There is no doubt new clothing symbolizes freshness, good spirits and results to become better. As we grow up, the new clothing could mean just placing the old ones with the newly-bought ones.

That theme has been very beautifully portrayed by the Iranian children story writer Houshang Moradi Kemani and his collection dubbed ‘Majid’s Stories’.  

‘Majid’s Stories’ depicts the life of a teenage boy named Majid from the Iranian province of Isfahan who lives with his grandmother Bi Bi.

One episode in the adopted version focuses on the idea of Majid’s new clothes on New Year’s Eve. As the poor lady, Bi Bi, cannot afford to buy Majid new clothes and the melodramatic image still lingers in our minds.

Among poor families, one traditional way to save money in this regard is to have a tailor to resize the clothes belonging to the elder members of the family for the children.

The video attached shows scene in which Majid and Bi Bi go to the tailor’s to order new clothes. But there, Majid gets upset due to the humiliating response he receives from the people in the shop.

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