Iran: A Nowruz New Year Without Goldfish? · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Traditional table decoration of Persian New Year, by Greg Dunlap on Flickr (CC-BY)
Goldfish have a special place in the Iranian New Year, Nowruz, celebrating the first day of Spring (March 20). But every year animal rights defenders and bloggers launch campaigns to encourage people not to buy them. The fish are often kept in poor conditions and millions die every year.
The centerpiece of Nowruz observances is the “Haft Sīn” table setting of seven symbolic foods all starting with the letter ‘S’ (سین in Persian). The  table is also decorated with candles, mirrors, colored eggs… and live goldfish (called red fish). Many Iranians disagree on this issue.
Jadid Online filmed a short documentary (with English subtitles) in 2008 showing how Nowruz fish are bought, sold and industrially farmed.
Red fishes for Nowruz, by Parmida Rahimi on Flickr (CC-BY)
Iranian blogger Nasim Saba writes [fa]:
Please do not buy goldfish. In the last few years animal rights activists have launched online campaigns to discourage people from buying goldfish to save this beautiful animal. Every year their campaign become more successful. As people shop for the new year celebration, goldfish reappear in shops. Campaigners began to boycott this deadly trade. Goldfish are not an Iranian tradition, it comes from a Chinese tradition. Five millon goldfish die in Iran each year during Nowruz period.
Fish for sale in Tehran by Mahtab on Flickr (CC-BY-NC-ND)
Greenblog does not share same idea. The blogger writes [fa]:
We should not boycott buying goldfish. Instead creating an environment hostile to animals we should teach and educate people how to treat goldfish, from the transporters to the buyers… instead of all the negative propaganda against goldfish, we should improve monitoring of goldfish suppliers… Influenced by the negative campaigns, some Iranians have replaced goldfish with turtles in recent years.
The blogger adds that while some people say the goldfish tradition comes from China, he checked learned via Google that Chinese it comes from Iran!