Persia, in Every Sense : Sights, Sounds, Smells of Iran Fill an Irvine Festival

IRVINE —  In a shady tent, couples sit on soft rugs and sip fragrant tea.

In a sun-splashed field, men and women gorge themselves on yellow ice cream that tastes faintly of rose water and saffron.

In a small amphitheater, families weep at a traditional children’s dance, which depicts the slaughter of teen-age soldiers in a long, cruel war.

The grounds at Irvine Meadows this weekend are a well-polished mirror of modern and ancient Iran, as thousands attend Orange County’s second annual Mehregan, the Persian celebration of autumn.

Organizers expect 15,000 to attend the two-day festival, which continues today from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., and many visitors will not necessarily be fluent in Farsi.

Mehregan is similar to America’s Thanksgiving, organizers say, though it predates the U.S. holiday by many, many hundreds of years.

Besides giving thanks, festival organizers hope to create a greater understanding and appreciation of Iran’s culture, which they say is often maligned and misunderstood in the United States.

“What Persia is all about is not [Ayatollah] Khomeini and the Islamic Republic,” Maryam Khosravani said.

Even those who know nothing about Iran can relate to the festival’s many timeless themes.

“It’s a celebration of kindness, of being kind to people,” Khosravani said. “And love. It’s a celebration of love.”

There are more than 500,000 Iranians in Southern California, it is estimated--the largest Iranian community outside of Iran.

For those transplants--whether they hail from Tehran, the Zagros Mountains, or the Caspian coast--the flavor of succulent lamb kebabs will be mouthwatering, the reading of old Persian poetry a welcome surprise, the sight of intricate woodworking and metal crafts from the state of Esfahan a rare reminder of home.

“It’s a good way to get all Iranian people together,” said 15-year-old Ali Samsami, a violinist who performed with a group of young Iranian musicians.

“You can walk around and see the past,” said his 11-year-old brother and fellow performer, Erfan. “It’s like time-traveling or something.”

For young people from the Iranian Cultural Center of Orange County, the festival is a chance to perform several emotionally demanding interpretations of old and new stories.

In one dance, a young girl in ancient Persia prances with glee on the day of her arranged wedding, the day she will meet her husband for the first time.

In another dance, several girls depict the devastation of Iran’s bloody war with Iraq, throwing their hands at the sky and strewing flower petals around their feet.

Sanaz Soltani, a UCLA student who choreographed the children, said the dance gives many Iranians a larger sense of connectedness and a lump in the throat.

“It’s so wonderful to see so many people from the same background,” she said. “This is an oooold culture.”