TEHRAN –A rosewater distillation festival, commonly known as “Golab-giri”, is planned to be held in the city of Lalezar, the southern province of Kerman, on Friday, the provincial tourism chief has said.

Performing traditional music, playing local games, and displaying and selling handicrafts will be parts of the festival, CHTN quoted Fereydun Faali as saying on Wednesday.

Organizing this festival will create a suitable cultural environment as well as economic benefits for the region, the official added.

He also noted that the eco-lodge units of the area are ready to host tourists and the festival’s visitors.

Golab or rosewater is obtained from a particular kind of Rose, known as Mohammadi roses in Iran. Harvesting flowers seems to be the most important part of the process. They should be picked from dawn through morning very carefully. The petals are put into massive copper pots and boiled, and then the extracted water is kept in special bottles. The longest the distillation is, the better will be the quality of the rosewater.

Golab is used nationwide in diverse traditional dishes to flavor them or consumed as a religious perfume as well. The holy month of Ramadan is one of the bestselling months for the product.

The distillation of flowers and herbs has a deep history in Iran. Many believe traditionally distilled rosewater is of higher quality than that produced in factories probably due to shorter time intervals between the harvest and distillation practices.

Harvesting damask rose flowers is somewhat intensive work. It is mostly performed from dawn through the morning.  Delay in harvesting or transport to distillery results in decreased essential oil quantity and quality. 

To extract the rosewater people first amass their petals to put them into the massive copper pots. Then the pots are put on traditional ovens made from bricks, stones, and mud.

Almost every 30 Kg of rose petals plus 80 liters of water is poured into each pot that is connected to metal pipes for the steam moving through to obtain the hydrosol. The waste of distillation is used for feeding livestock or composting.

The big and sprawling Kerman province has been a cultural melting pot since antiquity, blending Persians with subcontinental tribe dwellers. It is home to myriad historical sites and scenic landscapes such as Bazaar-e Sartasari, Jabalieh Dome, Ganjali Khan Bathhouse, Malek Jameh Mosque, and Shahdad Desert to name a few.

Kerman province is bounded by the provinces of Fars on the west, Yazd on the north, South Khorasan on the northeast, Sistan-Baluchestan on the east, and Hormozgan on the south. It includes the southern part of the central Iranian desert, the Dasht-e Lut.

ABU/MG