Celebrating Navruz, the Spring Jubilee
Communities gather to prepare sweetmeats, spring clean their neighbourhoods and play equestrian games.
Celebrating Navruz, the Spring Jubilee
Communities gather to prepare sweetmeats, spring clean their neighbourhoods and play equestrian games.
People across Central Asia - and beyond - have been celebrating a 3,000-year-old tradition marking the new year and ushering in spring.
Navruz means “new day” in Farsi and is also spelled Nowvruz or Novruz. Celebrated from the Balkans to Central Asia, the festivity transcends religion, cultures and nationalities and is so significant that in 2016 it was added to UNESCO’s list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
In Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent, women prepared cauldrons full of sumalak, the traditional nougat-like sweet paste that is key to the celebration. In Tajikistan crowds gathered on the outskirts of Dushanbe for games of buzkashi, a traditional equestrian sport.
Navruz survived decades of Soviet-imposed bans and after the break-up of the USSR it became an official holiday across the newly independent states of Central Asia.
“We gathered in a large family circle, together with the grandparents, all relatives,” said Muhaye Saidova, a resident of Tashkent’s Ahmad Yugnakiy mahalla (neighbourhood), recalling how her family marked it during the Soviet era despite an official ban.
“We cooked sumalak in large cauldrons,” she continued. “Children and adults sat together, eating, drinking, singing songs. Our grandparents would tell stories from their past. So, we children learned about our ancestors, for example, how one of my great-grandfathers performed the hajj on horseback. It was very interesting. We, children, were not forced to go to bed, we could fall asleep on our grandmother's lap right at the dastarkhan [traditional table covered with delicacies].”
On March 21, the day of the spring equinox, Uzbekistan announces a nationwide khashar, a volunteer action where people get together to clean courtyards and streets and to bring items to orphanages and nursing homes. Khashar unites the young and the old and the elderly believe that nothing connects people more than working together and relaxing together afterwards.
Navruz is also a celebration of family: houses are given a thorough spring clean, trees are planted, new clothes are sewn, traditional dishes are cooked and kitchens are filled with laughter.
The preparation lasts several days and celebrations go well beyond the spring equinox: in Tajikistan the holiday lasts a whole week.
On the night of Navruz, people jump over large bonfires set up in villages to symbolise a leap from the past towards the future. On the feast day, tables are covered with homemade delicacies like samosa with herbs, stuffed pirozhki buns and creamy nisholda, a sweet paste made from beaten egg whites.
Towns and villages organise concerts, street parties, folk festivals, artisanal fairs and sport competitions. Buzkashi matches, known as kopkari in Uzbekistan, are common across the region: a crowd of horsemen compete to grab a lamb or goat carcass from the ground.
This publication was prepared under the "Amplify, Verify, Engage (AVE) Project" implemented with the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway.
