Short answer
Nowruz, the Persian New Year at the spring equinox, is not an Islamic festival. Classical Hanafi scholars warned by name against honouring Nowruz, so Muslims should not celebrate it as a festival or join its rituals. Visiting family and eating together on that day, without treating it as an eid, is not haram. Some contemporary scholars are more lenient with its cultural side.
Hanafi texts state that giving a gift on Nayruz to honour the day as its followers honour it endangers a person's faith, while buying or doing ordinary things on that day without intending to honour it is no sin. Treating it as a yearly festival is not allowed, since Islam's festivals are the two Eids.
The four schools agree on this.
Explanation
Nowruz, meaning new day, falls on the spring equinox around 20 or 21 March. It has ancient roots in pre-Islamic Persia and Zoroastrian tradition, and today it is a national holiday in Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia and among Kurds and others. Its customs include spring cleaning, family visits, a special table of symbolic items (haft-sin), and in some places jumping over fires on the eve of the last Wednesday of the year.
Nayruz is one of the few non-Muslim festivals the classical Hanafi books mention by name. Hanafi jurists warned that a person who gives even a small gift on that day to honour it, as its followers do, puts his faith in danger. Some commentators also explain the two old festival days the Prophet ﷺ found in Madinah, which he replaced with the two Eids, as Nayruz and Mihrajan.
- Avoid: treating the day as a festival, fire-jumping and other rites for purification or luck, fortune telling for the new year, and symbolic tables set up for good fortune.
- Fine as on any day: visiting parents, eating together, a spring outing on a public holiday, without the intention of honouring the festival.
Many Muslims from these regions grew up with Nowruz as family culture, and some contemporary scholars there are more lenient with its cultural side. Keep the discussion calm, keep family ties warm, and give your fullest joy to the two Eids. See Lunar New Year and New Year's.
The evidence
Quran, Surah Al-Furqaan 25:72
وَٱلَّذِينَ لَا يَشْهَدُونَ ٱلزُّورَ وَإِذَا مَرُّوا۟ بِٱللَّغْوِ مَرُّوا۟ كِرَامًۭا ﴿٧٢﴾
And [they are] those who do not testify to falsehood, and when they pass near ill speech, they pass by with dignity.
Early scholars explained this as not attending the festivals of other faiths.
Sunan Abi Dawud 1134
Graded sahih... قد أبدلكم الله بهما خيرا منهما يوم الأضحى ويوم الفطر ...
"Allah has given you something better than them: the day of al-Adha and the day of al-Fitr."
The Prophet ﷺ replaced the old festival days with the two Eids.
Sunan Abi Dawud 4031
Graded hasan sahih... من تشبه بقوم فهو منهم ...
"Whoever imitates a people is one of them."
Muslims avoid the religious customs of other faiths.
Where the ruling is recorded
- al-Bahr al-Ra'iq, Kitab al-Siyar, Bab Ahkam al-Murtaddin. Reports the warning against giving gifts to honour Nayruz.
- al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, Kitab al-Siyar, the chapter on the rulings of apostates. Distinguishes honouring Nayruz from ordinary buying and visiting on that day.
Checked by our team. For a more accurate answer to your own situation, consult a scholar. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.