Throughout the past few weeks, Plymouth High School freshmen have been learning about Nowruz, the Persian New Year that falls on the first day of spring. Nowruz is not a religious holiday, but instead a month-long celebration of new beginnings and shedding away the past. Students in Charlie Ferman’s 1st, 3rd, and 6th-hour English classes got to experience Nowruz in a hands-on way through taste on Friday, March 22. Students got to feast on popular middle eastern cuisine which is rich in culture thanks to leg work by Mr. Ferman and some major generosity by Aladdin’s Eatery.
The Mishawaka restaurant donated enough food to feed dozens of students in Ferman’s three separate classrooms. Mr. Ferman said, “I wanted to present the food with as much authenticity as possible. When I looked at recipes, I thought how could I compete with Aladdin’s?”
After a quick phone call explaining his ongoing lesson, he said Aladdin’s Eatery was quick to say yes to the cause and donated middle eastern food for free. “I am overwhelmed at their generosity. The food was plentiful and consisted of tabouli salad, hummus, baba ghanoush, and a variety of fresh vegetables. There was also pita bread, dates, shortbread cookies, with spices to season the dipping sauces,” said Ferman. The Nowruz classroom celebration was extremely authentic with the Persian cuisine being the focal point.
“During the fourth quarter, all of our PHS freshmen study Persian culture and literature. Soon they will be reading an illustrated novel describing the way of life for Middle Eastern countries. Comparisons will be made between our country and various countries along the Mediterranean Sea,” said Ferman.
Nowruz involves a lot of food and family traditions, craft-making, parties, and public gatherings. More than 300 million people worldwide celebrate Nowruz dating back for more than 3,000 years from the Black Sea Basin to Central Asia to the Middle East, and this year in at least one classroom at Plymouth High School.
To read more about Nowruz visit the following website .un.org/en/events/nowruzday/background.shtml.
To learn more about Aladdin’s Eatery visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/aladdinsmishawaka/.
Click here for photos captured by PHS sophomore Raven Gritton
Photo 1 L-R Back Row: Alex Vegso, Izabel Wetzel, Regan Watkins, Nathan Filson, Dakota Linback, Liam Fort, Kole Haug, Zane Lark, Dylan Williams, Diego Arroyo Front Row: Raelynn Lolmaugh, Nicole Oviedo, Annastasia Hutching
Photo 2 Charlie Ferman and his wife Paula Ferman. Paula helped serve Middle Eastern cuisine at PHS during the Nowruz celebration
