Sing-along Café 2025-03-20

Happy New Year! Sale Now Mobarak. Nowruz Pirooz. At 5:01:30, winter ended and spring began at the moment of the vernal equinox, the moment that the sun crossed the equator. That is the moment when people celebrate Persian New Year, people all over the world, and my family, the Naghavi side of my family too. I shared a picture of my haft seen spread, and we talked about the symbolism of the items, and the traditions practised over the weeks before and after the equinox. They are some of the very same things that many other cultures do and think about at the turning of the year or at spring celebrations. We are more alike than different, all of us on this planet. We talked a little bit about religion and politics, and Iranian women. We listened to a couple of Iranian songs from my Persian Party playlist. We couldn’t sing along because we can’t read Perso-Arabic script.

And then, we switched to Irish music, in honour of St. Patrick’s Day, which was Monday. This playlist had lots of songs we could sing along with. We started off with a couple of traditional pub songs, and then chose songs from my list of well-known Irish artists.

We sipped tea, nibbled on cranberry muffins (yum! Recipe below), and chatted and laughed, and sang some good songs. It was another lovely evening in lovely company.

We decided to sing songs on the theme of celestial events next week, inspired by the equinox and talk of changes of seasons.

Here is a sample of what we sang on Thursday, March 20th:

Ay Del by Leila Forouhar
Ye Dokhtar Daram Shah Nadareh by Hassan Shamaeezadeh
The Lady in Red by Chris de Burgos
Galway Girl by Ed Sheeran
Orinoco Flow by Enya
Moondance by Van Morrison
Into the Mysitc by Van Morrison and a few others
You Raise Me Up and Home by Westlife
It’s a Long Way to Tipperary by the McMulligans
The Wild Rover by The Blarney Lads

Here's the recipe:

Cookie-like Cranberry Muffins

1 3/4 cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

Blend these dry ingredients.

mix in 1 cup frozen or fresh cranberries

Combine:

1/3 cup melted butter

1/3 cup milk

1 beaten egg

Add wet to dry, and combine.

Dough will be thick a little crumbly.

Drop into muffin tin, lined with paper or silicone cups.

Bake at 400 F for 25 minutes

Link to an article about HaftSeen

Comments

Sing-along Café Thursday, October 30th, 2025

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My usual practice to write a review of our Thursday singing nights, Sing-along Café, is on hold. I haven't felt secure about this 'ministry' of mine. In my mind, it's a wonderful and important thing, but it's not taking off. And, I've been wondering if my music ministry at Trinity should move in a different direction. I suggested adding a choir practice in this time slot, for a pop/contemporary Sunday choir, which I could run with a volunteer accompanist, since it is the traditional, usual time for church choirs. Another choir was not feasible, so that's not happening (yet/ I'm still hopeful). I have been asked to work with the drama club on the music for the Christmas Pageant again, and those rehearsals have moved from Wednesdays to Thursdays. So, I'm now wondering how to manage my Thursday nights with that added in. One possibility is to start the Sing-along Café at 6:30, at the same time as the drama club. We could invite the parents/guardians...

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