Fabulous Arab habitants

The first weekend of spring I went to Ronda an splendid southern city in Andalusia with a strange but intelligent structure of construction; in fact strange is subject expression of what we can not imagine based on our knowledge and my expression at first look to this city was:
"I am going to fall down the valley, why they chose to live here"
When began to explore the city walking through the narrow alleys and watching the marvelous view of farms down the valley and the houses on top of the rocks and the giant bridge that connect the habitats with exterior you go for the reason and that can not be except the logic of survival so you should  better study history of Spanish conquest and Arab survival decision.

The fantastic fact is that now Spanish is living in the same houses conserving the structures since they function very well and they are adapted the best way to the present context of European living style. The Muslim, is used to have an interior life and Arab housing is based of this ideology; they kept inside perfectly and made it all a paradise with extremely colorful gardens and orange trees and all facilities of an entire life.

An interior courtyard of  Arab house

Now the archeologic site "Casa de Gigante"  

Watching the structure of a house while the enthusiast and  prepared guide was telling the story of the Arab family who gathered in the patio in the summer wing and warmed by the natural and sustainable system of air in the winter part I was remembering the Persian cities I had the fortune to visit before my long departure for new explorations; the houses with some similarities to Arab ones plus the Persian art- works every where as an inevitable part of life and what makes the particular distinction between two cultures. The Persian Garden-Houses I visited in Kashan, Isfahan Yazd and Shiraz and others had also two habitant areas adapted for winter and for summer with a blue pool between with trees all surrounded and a underground for storage of food;  In Yazd even they had digged the ground to have water streams at house such a perfect paradise that they rarely needed to connect outside; I remember that I had the chance to play in my childhood at my grandmother's house at Ray, one of the Ex-Iranian's Capital which now for a different history doesn't exist any more.

Passing the Arc of Ronda to enter the city there was the famous Arab Bathroom for washing the journey dust of tiredness before settling down into the city. Now it's no more functional but still is the cause of admiration for such an idea and perfect construction on top of the rocks. 

What remained of a functional bathroom

The city with it's labyrinth structure and narrow alleys was so pleasant and the co-habitant of two lives of Muslims of a time not so much far in the history and the actual what is the fruit of christianism of Catholics Kings of Spain.

The nice co-habitant of two cultures 

Narrow alleys, Arab houses & Christian construction

Now it's just a pretty town under the sun- spite it was a rainy day and all our perception of the sun was of the photos we saw of our friends trip in a sunny- day with a gorgeous panorama with peaceful area of vivienda and specially this day a happy touring of different athletics who were doing their kind of competition asking direction from passengers through the circled alleys to an unknown end; some with bicycles, some running and others  practicing jogging and I wondered how it was possible for all these groups to manage and basically what a particular marathon it was in this hilly town!

NowRuz Intercultural Point

20 March 2012
Officially it was the first day of spring all over the world I mean on the earth that we are living for the moment   :) What I wonder every time more and more is to come closer to our origins of human being and to be more conscious about this reality. We youngsters of all over the world, I dare to say so because of such a sensation we had last night of old Persian year 1390 gathering to celebrate the New One "NowRuz" at my home here in Granada. The guys of Spain, Italy, France, Mexico, Bosnia, Marueco, United States and Iraq came curious to know and eager to take part in that intercultural celebration of Eid's night of Persian far from Iran actually not so much since the direct flight from Spanish capital to the Iranian one is just four hours. It was fabulous and I enjoyed the presence of friends from different countries, every one with favorite drink and a possible dessert of his origin and volunteers took part in traditional Spring-Welcoming with their flowers; they also enjoyed having this chance to experience an exotic fiesta as every thing at their eyes was wow for the famous big distance in their mental map about oriental countries and about that antique Persia covered with the dust of eras and so more with the pollution of mental wars; spite we are not any more far from the facilities of modern era but the exaggeration in comfort also made us to not think of necessity of knowing more than our living area.

The big social network makes us again to gather and to look for the things that seem lost; the distances in  our mental map become smaller and the humanity gap is going to disappear; when at the Persian night I tried to say some thing about nature as the origin of celebration what I saw in the eyes of audience was the confirmation about the fact that rebirth of the earth deserves to be celebrated so we danced our traditional way and every time we got through another aspect of sharing culture with our dances; we enjoyed the similarities of rhythms and foot moves and we also tried dances basically different from ours.
We listened to the Persian music of celebrating Nowruz in Iran and in all diaspora living areas of Iranians like that of Persian dance of students at Michigan University of the United States.

Symbols of life on the "7Sin" Table

My incomplete "7Sin"
We had: Apple, Garlic, Coin, Vinegar
We didn't: Samanu, Somagh, Senjed

In ancient era the Persian King Cyrus together with the folk celebrated the new sun when it began to warm-up the earth and to make grow the seeds so it was "NowRuz" The New Day of agriculture. The folk danced on the farms bringing to king the seeds symbol of life and abundance. What remained to us of the glorious era of earth and sun at about 4000 years ago is the celebration of NowRuz which recently is declared by the UNESCO "The Human Cultural Heritage".

The table of seeds with all symbols in Persian Culture in my Intercultural Fiesta was not as complete as it was in every Iranian home but thanks to the intercultural characteristics of Granada I was happy to introduce it to my friends of every where and to receive the bless of "Changing Time" in a fabulous presence of  different sensations in the air. 

At 6: 15' Madrid time equal 8:45' Tehran time the Nowruz horn announced the departure of "Cold-The Grandma'" and the happy arrival of "Nowruz-The Baba"; all family at this holy time of changes gather together for wishing the blessed energy of renewal and pray God to have positive change of every thing in life of all people.

"Nowruz" Horn 

Announcing spring arrival 

      

And now, at the day13 of this exotic New Year all the Persians go to be in the pure nature of green to have a direct touch with the spring and to brace it for receiving the energy of  new season for the year ahead.  

What a great sensation when you do the picnic in nature with family and friends wishing the best things in life for all and for yourself tying grass as the sign of fortune.

And what a greater sensation when you having travelled somewhere out of your culture you understand there is a same picnic in nature in a close time to your thirteenth day and you can get through this fabulous similarity in celebrations in the world because their origin is always the same; it's the proof of idea "all is one and one is all".