On the thirteenth day of Nowruz, 80 million Iranians do the same thing: they leave the house. All of them. At once. Every park, riverbank, mountainside, and patch of grass in the country fills with families, barbecues, boom boxes, and enough watermelon to hydrate a small nation. Traffic out of Tehran becomes a parking lot that stretches to the Alborz mountains. Welcome to Sizdah Bedar (سیزده بدر. sizdah bedar). Iran’s national picnic day.
The concept is simple: thirteen is bad luck. Get it out of the house. Spend the entire day outside, in nature, doing anything except sitting indoors with the number 13 hovering over you. It’s the final act of the Nowruz season. the transition from two weeks of celebration back to regular life. And Iranians execute it like a military operation involving blankets, kebab skewers, and a frankly absurd amount of food.
What Is Sizdah Bedar
سیزده (sizdah) means thirteen. بدر (bedar) means “out” or “away.” Thirteen-out. Remove thirteen from your life for the day. The superstition is ancient. thirteen has been unlucky in Iranian culture long before Western triskaidekaphobia became a thing. Some scholars trace it to Zoroastrian cosmology, where the twelve constellations governed by good spirits were disrupted by a thirteenth force of chaos.
Sizdah Bedar falls on Farvardin 13. April 1 or 2 in the Gregorian calendar. (Yes, it often coincides with April Fools’ Day, and some Iranian scholars claim the pranking tradition actually originated from Sizdah Bedar. The evidence is thin, but the pride is fierce.)
The day is an official public holiday in Iran. Schools, offices, and businesses are closed. The expectation. social, not legal, but enforced with equal vigor. is that you spend the day outdoors. Staying home on Sizdah Bedar is like skipping Christmas dinner: technically possible, socially unacceptable, and your mother will call to ask what’s wrong.
Iranians don’t just go to a park on Sizdah Bedar. They colonize it. Families arrive at dawn to claim the best spots. near the river, under the big tree, next to the water fountain. Blankets go down. The samovar comes out. Kebab grills appear. By noon, every park in Iran looks like a festival camp that materialized overnight. The territorial negotiations over prime picnic real estate are a sport in themselves.
The Sabzeh Ritual: Throwing Away the Old Year
Remember the سبزه (sabzeh). the wheat or lentil sprouts on the haft-sin table? The green carpet that’s been growing since two weeks before Nowruz? On Sizdah Bedar, you take it outside and throw it into running water. a stream, a river, a canal, anything that flows.
سبزه رو آب انداختن. sabzeh ro âb andâkhtan. to throw the sabzeh into water
The symbolism: the sabzeh has absorbed the ailments, bad luck, and negativity of the household over the thirteen days. Throwing it into running water carries all of that away. The old year. with its problems, its arguments, its failures. floats downstream. You walk back to the blanket lighter.
In practice, Iran’s rivers and streams get absolutely stuffed with sabzeh on Sizdah Bedar. By late afternoon, every body of water in the country is running green. Environmental groups have started campaigns about this. sabzeh ro tou jouye âb nandâzid (don’t throw sabzeh in the storm drains). but the tradition, like most Iranian traditions, proves resistant to practical concerns.
Gereh Zadan: Tying Knots for Love
گره زدن (gereh zadan). to tie a knot. This is the Sizdah Bedar tradition that targets single people. Before throwing the sabzeh into water, unmarried people tie the green stalks into knots while making a wish. almost always a wish for a partner.
گره. gereh. knot
زدن. zadan. to hit/tie (context-dependent)
آرزو کردن. ârezu kardan. to make a wish
The idea: if the knot holds until the sabzeh hits the water, the wish will come true. (Sabzeh knots are surprisingly sturdy, so the tradition is generous with its success rate.) It’s lighthearted. the equivalent of blowing out birthday candles. but it’s also a moment where single Iranians of all ages engage in a 3,000-year-old love ritual while their married cousins pretend not to watch.
At Iranian picnics in the diaspora, the gereh-zadan moment gets performative. People record it, post it, tag their crushes. The ancient tradition has adapted to Instagram without missing a beat.
What Iranians Bring to the Picnic
A Sizdah Bedar picnic is not a sandwich-in-a-bag situation. Iranian families bring full kitchens to the park.
The essentials:
- کباب (kabâb). kebab. Multiple kinds. Koobideh (ground meat), joojeh (chicken), barg (sirloin). A portable grill is standard equipment.
- سبزی خوردن (sabzi khordan). fresh herb plate. Basil, mint, tarragon, radishes, scallions. The table anchor.
- نان (nân). bread. Lavash or sangak, bought fresh that morning.
- دوغ (dugh). yogurt drink. Cold, slightly fizzy, the designated kebab companion.
- برنج (berenj). rice. Yes, some families bring a full pot of rice to the park. With tahdig. In a cooler.
- چای (châi). tea. From a samovar. Non-negotiable. The park picnic without tea is not a picnic.
- آجیل (âjil). mixed nuts. For snacking between courses.
- میوه (miveh). fruit. Oranges, apples, whatever’s in season.
The setup takes an hour. The eating takes three. The cleanup takes another hour. The argument about who forgot to bring the salt takes the entire time. For the full food vocabulary breakdown, the 100+ Persian food words guide covers everything on the sofreh.
Sizdah Bedar Vocabulary: 15 Words
| فارسی | Transliteration | English |
|---|---|---|
| سیزده بدر | sizdah bedar | 13th day of Nowruz (national picnic) |
| سیزده | sizdah | thirteen |
| بدر | bedar | out/away |
| سبزه | sabzeh | sprouts/greenery |
| گره زدن | gereh zadan | to tie a knot |
| آرزو | ârezu | wish |
| پیکنیک | piknik | picnic (borrowed word) |
| پارک | pârk | park |
| رودخانه | rudkhâneh | river |
| طبیعت | tabi’at | nature |
| بد شانسی | bad shânsi | bad luck |
| خوش شانسی | khosh shânsi | good luck |
| دروغ سیزده | doruq-e sizdah | 13th lie (Sizdah Bedar pranks) |
| سمنو | samovar | samovar (tea urn) |
| کبابپز | kabâb-paz | barbecue/grill |
The word دروغ سیزده (doruq-e sizdah). “the thirteen lie”. deserves its own mention. It’s the Sizdah Bedar tradition of playing pranks and telling lies, similar to April Fools’ Day. Kids trick each other, adults play elaborate jokes, and social media fills with fake announcements. The Iranian claim that April Fools’ Day originated from Sizdah Bedar is itself a kind of doruq-e sizdah. For the nature-related vocabulary, the Persian nature words guide covers mountains, rivers, and gardens.
Sizdah Bedar in the Diaspora
Diaspora Sizdah Bedar is remarkably faithful to the original. You need a park, food, family or friends, and sabzeh to throw away. That works in Toronto, LA, London, Berlin. anywhere with a green space and an Iranian community.
In Southern California, Iranian families descend on parks across Orange County and the San Fernando Valley. The scene is indistinguishable from a Tehran park. blankets, samovars, kebab smoke, kids running everywhere, someone’s uncle playing backgammon under a tree. In Toronto, parks in North York fill up. In London, certain corners of Hyde Park or Richmond Park become temporary Iranian territory.
In Milan, my Sizdah Bedar is a blanket in Parco Sempione with whatever Iranian friends I can round up, a container of rice that’s gone cold, and sabzeh from my windowsill that I toss into the Naviglio canal with a muttered ârezu. It’s not Tehran. But the grass is green, the sun is out, and the thirteenth day of Nowruz closes the way it’s supposed to. outside, full, and done.
For the full timeline of the Nowruz season. from Chaharshanbe Suri through the 13-day Nowruz. the complete Persian holidays guide connects everything.
FAQ
When is Sizdah Bedar in 2026?
What do you do with the sabzeh on Sizdah Bedar?
What is gereh zadan on Sizdah Bedar?
Why is 13 unlucky in Iranian culture?
Is Sizdah Bedar the same as April Fools’ Day?
Sizdah Bedar is the full stop on the Nowruz sentence. thirteen days that began with fire, moved through family visits and crisp banknotes, and end with a national picnic, knot-tying wishes, and sabzeh floating downstream. It’s the most relaxed day in the Iranian calendar, and the vocabulary from this post plugs directly into spring and nature conversations in Farsi.
The full vocabulary set. all 15 words. is available as a practice set in ZabanYar.
If you want to describe your own Sizdah Bedar in Farsi. the food, the park, the sabzeh ritual. I teach on Preply. We’ll build a full scene: arriving at the park, setting up, the gereh-zadan moment, and arguing with your cousin about who forgot the dugh. Standard Iranian picnic simulation.