"For me, it's an obligation of being Iranian, it's our root, it's not just celebrating springtime and rebirth of the earth," the 45-year-old told AFP from Paris, where she lives now. "For me it's resistance."

The ancient holiday is celebrated in Iran and neighbouring countries on the equinox in March, typically marked by weeks of anticipation as families prepare Haft-Seen tables -- a symbolic arrangement of foods and objects, including apples, sprouted greens, painted eggs and poetry.

This year Sarvanaz, who asked to only use her first name for security, decorated her egg with a blue sky and a sun.

"For me it's peace, it's a sky with no bombs and always shining."

Iranians inside the country and around the world are marking the Nowruz holiday on Friday under the shadow of the US-Israeli war with Iran that has sent shockwaves around the world.

But while the conflict has made marking the normally joyful festival of spring and the new year painful for some, many told AFP it felt even more important to celebrate under the circumstances.

Sarvanaz's parents in Iran will also celebrate, she said, though she may not be able to be in touch with them as usual due to the near-total communications blackout since the war started.

In Tehran in the days before the holiday, there was a sense of normalcy with shops open and streets again full of traffic, but there was little of the usual celebratory atmosphere, AFP reporters there said.

While many may forgo the usual travel or gatherings this year, others in Iran said they would still celebrate.

Hoda, who lives in Saveh, south of Tehran, said she would "definitely gather with family" and even travel to the capital, which has seen some of the worst of the war's strikes.

"We assume and hope that there will be no attacks on the first day of the new year," she told an AFP reporter based outside Iran.

But others left the country seeking reprieve.

A Kurdish resident of Mahabad in Iran's West Azerbaijan province, said her family travelled to Iraqi Kurdistan to celebrate, making part of the roughly 170 kilometre (100 mile) journey to Erbil on foot through the mountains because the borders have been closed.

"We were determined to come here because, in Iran, I felt that the Nowruz atmosphere just wasn't what it should be," she said.

"The Kurds of Iraq are much more accustomed than we, the Kurds of Iran, to war and to the idea of celebrating even during times of conflict."

- 'Hard to be far away' -

For Kiarash in Germany, the holiday has been darkened by the war and the death of thousands in anti-government protests in Iran during which he saw people killed.

"Last year was with hope, this year is with hope and fear," he said.

"I invited many friends of mine to come here, because during these traumas, we have to sit together and talk, and prepare ourselves for something better."

Sasha Khoshabeh, a 44-year-old physical therapist living in Los Angeles where there is a large Iranian community, said he would usually call his friends and family in Iran on Nowruz to wish them good health.

But this year, "we don't even know if they're safe... what I wish for them is just to stay alive, to stay away from crowded places and to watch out for each other. And hopefully we can all celebrate a free Iran soon," he said.

Like Khoshabeh, Mahnaz Panjehpour in Paris, is feeling the distance from Iran starkly this year.

She said at home people say that what you're doing at the exact moment the calendar turns -- a time that shifts each year -- sets the tone for the year.

"That's why we try to celebrate with family, with dignity, to be calm, with Hafez" the renowned 14th-century poet, she said. "This year, everything is messed up."

Ahead of Nowruz, she returned to a line of poetry for hope for the year to come: "These bitter days will pass -- more bitter than poison; Once again a day will come when life is sweet as sugar."

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