Kooseh Bar-Neshin

Kooseh Bar-Neshin – Photo by Rahim Bayazidi / irna.ir

Today we are going to introduce another ritual of Nowruz which is called Kooseh Bar-Neshin. It is a traditional performance which is played by one or two people. In this performance, the chosen person wears make-up in an ugly way and rides a donkey. The second person serves him as his servant. The person on the donkey is called Kooseh, he carries a crow in one of his hands and a fan in his other hand.

The purpose of this symbolic performance is to show the contrast between warmth and cold. Kooseh is most probably the symbol of cold and carries crow as a sign of winter. He pretends that he is suffering from the warmth by moving his fan. The traces of this ritual can be found in the ancient texts till the beginning of the 4th Islamic century which dates back to the time of the Sasanian Empire.