PARADE

Dear Commenters;, Although

Dear Commenters;, Although all of your remarks concerning lack of success of Chicago Parade may have some validity, however, they do not explain entirely why the Nowruz parade in Chicago was not so-well attended.

1.     Weather was treacherous and torturous, icy snow and strong wind made the outdoor weather unbearable.

2.     It was, and still is, the flu season in Chicago. Many who wished to participate, myself included, had flu and could not leave the house.

3.     Traditionally, many Iranian families believe that they should stay home at the time of Sal Tahvil. Had the organizers scheduled this event for Sunday, it would have been undoubtedly more successful.

4.     More importantly, I believe, event was not announced adequately in advance and was not publicized properly. Posting and emailing an event does not do the trick. It takes lots of calling, arm twisting, dealing, and in many cases begging to make an event like that successful. We, Iranians, have to drag one another to the dance stage. But wait until we get there, nothing can stop us, we shake the whole place.

Nonetheless, we should all be thankful for the efforts of the organizers. They did a splendid job.Reza

P-Y, there is more than 2 reasons why not so many Iranians are

not gathering together:

3. They have their own groups of people whom they belong to such as similar religion(bahai, jews, religious moslems, non-reliigious moslems, commies, etc.), background, political affiliation (shahi, hezbi, bimazhabi, etc.), ethnics (rashti, azari, kermani, kord, etc.)

4. They don't want the American associate them with Iranians, or they might find this corny. Look at the spellin of Norooz as NOWROOZ in chicago parade! They want to show it as a more westernize spelling to show the connection. I know, that's how it is spelled in many places such as UN, but it is not iranian persian.

5. They really don't care. They have assimiated and don't want to be part of this, or find it embarrasing to go dance in public.

6. Iranians are individualists. They don't have the group mentality that some other ethnic groups such the jews, armenians, chinese, koreans, and so on have. They never help each other, just talk! Well, this is true for most, especially outside the country. Very disappoining.

 There are many other reasons as well. After all, we don't celebrate Norooz in iran by parading and dancing in public. Therefore, we should respect those who don't want to be part of this westernization of Norooz. Norooz should be more intimate and heart felt, not a PR for foreigners. However, I am glad that there are those of us who are proud of their culture and they are showing it to the west. More power to them!

nice celebrations but depressing too

Geez Whiz, you would think that the Iranians in Chicago would atleast be able to organize something that would turn some eyes.

There are two possibilities here;

either that there really aren't that many Iranians In US as we like to believe and hence the last census was right on

or

iranians are incapable of organizing large social groups.

Just listen in to LA's 670 am radio show on Saturday nights to see how many Iranians call in FROM LA and complain of being lonely and isolated.

Unfortunately, I feel both may be true.  I personallly think that Iranians would have a very difficult time living i exile given how disorganized they are.  Unlike almost every other group from Arabs to Koreans to vietnamese to Armenians who have formed their own little communities in US, Iranians lag way way behind.

And there are two reasons for that:

Iranians have absolutely no allegience to organized religion.  This makes their congregation and gathering very difficult.  Whereas Arabs have their mosques and Koreans their churches.

Iranians are very competitive to the point of being anti-social. 

I hate to admit it, but I think that Iranians in exile carry a load of "emotional" issues that have negatively impacted their well being. 

Now that's the spirit in the snow! Norooz Pirooz!

Enjoy the cold. Is the cover photo Iranian or married to an iranian? She looks very happy in the freezin weather.