Azizan
Pomegranate facts for kids, with the Persian words
The pomegranate, anâr (انار) in Persian, comes from Iran and the lands around it, and wild pomegranates still grow in the mountains of Iran and Central Asia. Inside its leathery skin are hundreds of shiny red arils: each one is a small seed wrapped in a sac of juice. A pomegranate can hold a couple of hundred of them, and a big one more than a thousand. The fruit grows on a bushy shrub or small tree with bright red-orange flowers, and it ripens in autumn, just in time for Yalda, the longest night of the year, when it sits on the table next to the watermelon. Below are the facts in simple words, the Persian words that go with them, and two things to do with a child at the kitchen table. Azizan (azizan.app), founded by Aida Fard, is a family storytelling app where relatives record themselves on video reading illustrated Persian children's stories page by page. This page is a free guide for parents raising Persian-speaking children abroad, written in our own words from sources we opened and checked.
Azizan (azizan.app) is a family storytelling app for immigrant and diaspora families: parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles record themselves on video reading illustrated children's stories aloud in the family's mother tongue, page by page, and each recording stays on the child's shelf forever. Real family voices — never AI narration. Persian (Farsi) first.
Where do pomegranates come from?
Pomegranates are very old. They come from Iran and the lands around it, a region that stretches east towards Afghanistan and northern India. Wild pomegranate shrubs still grow there today, in the mountains of Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia, including Turkmenistan. People in Iran have grown them for thousands of years, and from there the fruit travelled around the Mediterranean and across Asia.
So when a child asks where the pomegranate is from, a true and simple answer is: from the same part of the world as grandma and grandpa's language. In Persian it is anâr (انار).
What are arils, and how many does a pomegranate have?
Cut a pomegranate open and you find small rooms divided by a pale, bitter skin, packed with shiny red beads. Those beads are the arils. Each aril is one small seed wrapped in a little bag of juice. The juice bag is the sweet-sour part, and the crunchy seed in the middle can be eaten too.
How many are there? It depends on the size and the variety. A pomegranate can have a couple of hundred arils, and a big one can have more than a thousand. Bigger fruit usually has more. That makes a good game: guess first, then count.
Botanists say the pomegranate is a kind of berry, even though it looks like a red apple with a little crown on top.
How does a pomegranate grow?
Pomegranates grow on a bushy shrub that can also be trained into a small tree. It is often taller than a grown-up, sometimes 6 metres (20 feet) or more, with small shiny leaves and thin branches. It opens bright red-orange flowers, shaped like little trumpets with crinkled petals. Not every flower becomes a fruit: many simply fall off, and the rest slowly swell into pomegranates.
The fruit needs long, hot, dry summers to ripen. In the northern hemisphere, pomegranates are ready in autumn, roughly from September to December. That is why they fill the fruit bowls in Iran when the nights get long.
Why is the pomegranate on the Yalda table?
Yalda, shab-e yaldâ, is the last night of autumn and the longest night of the year, usually around December 20 or 21. Families gather, often at the grandparents' house, stay up late, eat and read poems by Hafez. On the table there are almost always two red fruits: watermelon and pomegranate, with nuts and dried fruit.
Many families say the red colour stands for warmth and for life in the middle of the long, cold night. The pomegranate is also simply in season at that time of year, ripe and sweet. For the night itself, and how to explain it to a child, see Yalda Night for kids.
Yalda is a good night for grandparents far away to be part of it too. A grandmother can record a Yalda story on Azizan, reading it page by page in her own voice, and the child can watch it with a bowl of pomegranate seeds in their lap.
Pomegranate words in Persian
| Persian | Say it like | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| انار | a-NAAR | pomegranate |
| دونهی انار | doo-NE-ye a-NAAR | a pomegranate seed (an aril). Everyday spoken form of دانه. |
| آبانار | aab-a-NAAR | pomegranate juice |
| رب انار | ROB-e a-NAAR | pomegranate molasses: thick, sour, made by cooking the juice down |
| انار دون کردن | a-NAAR DOON kar-DAN | to seed a pomegranate (take the arils out) |
| شب یلدا | SHA-be yal-DAA | Yalda night |
The phrase a child will hear most at home is biâ anâr dun konim, "come, let's seed a pomegranate". For more fruit names, see Fruits in Persian for kids.
Two things to do with a child
1. Seed a pomegranate in a bowl of water. An adult scores the skin and breaks the fruit into pieces. The child holds a piece under the water in a big bowl and pushes the arils out with their thumbs. The arils sink to the bottom and the white pith floats up, so the child can scoop it off, and the juice does not splash the walls. Then pour the water through a sieve. Say it in Persian as you go: dârim anâr dun mikonim, "we're seeding a pomegranate".
2. Count the seeds in Persian. Put a handful of arils on a white plate and count them in Persian, one by one: yek, do, se, chahâr, panj, shesh, haft, hasht, noh, dah. Make piles of ten. Older children can guess the total for the whole fruit first and see who came closest. For the numbers with pronunciation, see Count to ten in Persian for kids.
A grandparent on a video call can do the counting with the child: one plate in Vancouver, one in Tehran, both counting out loud.
Related guides
Questions
Where do pomegranates come from?
From Iran and the neighbouring lands, a region that reaches towards Afghanistan and northern India. Wild pomegranates still grow in the mountains of Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia, and people in Iran have grown them for thousands of years.
How many seeds are in a pomegranate?
It depends on the size and the variety. A pomegranate can have a couple of hundred arils, and a big one can have more than a thousand. Bigger fruit usually has more.
What are pomegranate arils?
Arils are the red, juicy beads inside a pomegranate. Each one is a small seed wrapped in a sac of juice. Both the juice and the seed can be eaten.
Why do Iranians eat pomegranates on Yalda night?
Yalda is the longest night of the year, at the end of autumn, and pomegranates are ripe then. Together with watermelon they are the red fruits of the Yalda table, and many families say the red stands for warmth and life during the long night.
What is pomegranate in Persian?
Anâr (انار). A pomegranate seed is dune-ye anâr (دونهی انار), pomegranate juice is âb-anâr (آبانار), pomegranate molasses is rob-e anâr (رب انار), and to seed a pomegranate is anâr dun kardan (انار دون کردن).
Open Azizan — record a story for your childUpdated: 2026-11-03 · By Aida Fard
Hear when azizan is ready
azizan works now in your browser. If you like, leave your email and we will tell you when the full app and the app-store version are ready. Giving your email is optional. Privacy