Cultures · Middle East & Maghreb
Iranian community in Ottawa.
6,000 people in Ottawa were born in Iran, tenth among the city's immigrant birthplaces. Nowruz, the Persian New Year, opens their year on the spring equinox.
Figures · Census 2021, Statistics Canada
The short answer.
Census 2021 counts 6,000 Ottawa residents born in Iran, tenth among the birthplaces of the city's immigrants, and 825 of them arrived between 2016 and 2021. 7,265 residents report Iranian origin and 3,095 Persian origin. Iranian Persian is the mother tongue of 5,735 people; all Persian languages together, Dari included, count 8,690.
All figures · Census 2021, Statistics Canada
Born in Iran
Tenth on the city's immigrant birthplace list, just behind Viet Nam and ahead of Pakistan and Italy.
Census 2021, Statistics Canada · place of birth, immigrant population, City of Ottawa
How the community got here.
The census counts people by birthplace and by the origins they write down. Both answers are on this page.
Arrival · three lines
A community still arriving
6,000 Ottawa residents were born in Iran, and 825 of them came between 2016 and 2021. The community has a settled generation and a new one at the same time.
Census 2021, Statistics CanadaIranian and Persian, both on the form
The census lets each person name their own origins: 7,265 Ottawa residents wrote Iranian, 3,095 wrote Persian, and one person can write both. Some families name a people within Iran instead.
Census 2021, Statistics CanadaPart of West Asian Ottawa
Census 2021 counts 13,255 Ottawa residents as West Asian, a category that holds Iranian and Afghan origins among others.
Census 2021, Statistics Canada
The language.
Persian is written in an Arabic-based script, right to left, and spoken from Iran to Afghanistan, where it is called Dari. In Ottawa, Iranian Persian is the mother tongue of 5,735 people and Dari of 2,320.
Persian · stress on the capitals
| Say | Sounds like | When you use it |
|---|---|---|
| Salâm | sa-LAHM | Hello. |
| Khosh âmadid | khosh AH-ma-deed | Welcome, said to a guest at the door. |
| Merci · Mamnun | mer-SEE · mam-NOON | Thank you; the French word is everyday Persian too. |
| Hâlet chetor-e? | HAH-let che-TOR-eh | How are you? Between friends. |
| Nowruz mobârak | no-ROOZ mo-baa-RAK | Happy Nowruz. |
| Nush-e jân | NOOSH-eh JAHN | Enjoy your meal, said to whoever is eating. |
The kitchen.
Persian cooking is rice, herbs and slow stews, with a sour note from dried lime, pomegranate or barberry.
Five dishes · what they actually are
Chelow kabab
Grilled kabab on saffron rice, with butter, a grilled tomato and sumac on the table.
Tahdig
The golden crust at the bottom of the rice pot, served in broken pieces. It is the first thing to go.
Ghormeh sabzi
A stew of slow-fried herbs, kidney beans, lamb or beef and dried lime.
Sabzi polo ba mahi
Herbed rice with fish, the dish of the Nowruz table.
Ash reshteh
A thick soup of noodles, beans and herbs, topped with kashk and fried mint, made for the new year.
The year.
The Persian year starts on the spring equinox, and its other great nights follow the sun as well. Religious dates follow the lunar calendar.
Fixed, lunar and moving dates
| When | What | How the date behaves |
|---|---|---|
| Mid-March | Chaharshanbe Suri | The eve of the last Wednesday of the year: bonfires, and people jump over the flames. |
| 20 or 21 March | Nowruz, the New Year | The spring equinox, to the minute. Inscribed on the UNESCO intangible heritage list in 2009; the UN marks 21 March as the International Day of Nowruz. |
| 1 or 2 April | Sizdah Bedar | The thirteenth day of the year: a picnic outdoors, and the sprouted wheat of the haft-sin goes into running water. |
| 20 or 21 December | Shab-e Yalda | The longest night: pomegranates, watermelon and the poems of Hafez until late. |
| Ramadan · Muharram | Marked by Muslim families | Lunar. Each falls roughly eleven days earlier than the year before. |
Where the community gathers.
Most of Nowruz happens at home and at a friend's table; the rest of the year has its halls and classrooms.
Four kinds of place
Homes and the haft-sin
Nowruz is kept at home first: the haft-sin table, visits to elders, then the friends who come back the other way.
Associations and cultural nights
Associations carry the poetry nights, the music, the Yalda evening and the committees that run the year.
Weekend schools
Weekend Persian classes are how the script and the poetry reach children born here.
Grocers
A shop selling saffron, barberries and fresh herbs by the armful does part of the work of a community centre.
At the festival.
A pavilion at Capital Cultures could set a haft-sin table, run a kabab grill and read Hafez at the language corner. The community decides all of it.
First edition · September 2027 · free entry
- The kitchen decides the menu. Food, drink and souvenirs sold at a community pavilion stay with the community in full, and the pavilion fee is zero.
- The stage is programmed by the community. We hold the schedule, the sound and the licences; the community holds who performs and in what order.
- A community festival and a pavilion here are separate things. Nowruz in March stays entirely the community's own, and a pavilion in September takes nothing from it.
- 01The community sends the pavilion application (ten minutes)
- 02A person answers within ten working days
- 03The board reads the published terms
- 04Both sides sign the participation agreement
- 05The pavilion opens on the field, September 2027
Short answers.
What people ask about Iranian Ottawa, answered from the census and the community calendar.
5 questions
How many Iranians live in Ottawa?
Census 2021 counts 6,000 Ottawa residents born in Iran, tenth among the birthplaces of the city's immigrants. 7,265 residents report Iranian origin and 3,095 Persian origin; one person can report both, so the two are not added together.
When is Nowruz?
On the spring equinox, 20 or 21 March: the new year begins at the minute the sun crosses the equator. The UN marks 21 March as the International Day of Nowruz, and UNESCO inscribed Nowruz on its intangible heritage list in 2009.
What is a haft-sin table?
The Nowruz table of seven things whose Persian names begin with the letter sin: sprouted wheat, sweet wheat pudding, dried oleaster, garlic, apples, sumac and vinegar. A mirror, painted eggs, coins and hyacinths stand beside them.
Is Persian the same as Farsi?
Yes. Farsi is the language's own name for itself, Persian the English one; in Afghanistan the same language is called Dari. In Ottawa 5,735 residents have Iranian Persian as their mother tongue and 7,805 can speak it (Census 2021).
Can the Iranian community run a pavilion at Capital Cultures?
Yes. Capital Cultures is a free two-day multicultural festival in Ottawa in September 2027. Each pavilion is run by a community: it plans its menu and stage, keeps what its counter takes, and pays no pavilion fee. A person answers every application within ten working days. How a community applies.
Write this page with us.
Corrections, additions, a family's arrival story, the name of the cook or the maker. The byline belongs to whoever does the work.