DUSHANBE March 20, 2013, Asia-Plus  -- The main Navrouz celebrations will take place in Dushanbe.  They will start today evening and will last through March 25, Shavkat Saidov, a spokesman for the Dushanbe mayor’s office, said.

On the night of March 20-21, women will begin to cook ‘sumanak,’ a sweet paste made entirely from germinated wheat.  It is prepared for Navrouz in a large pot.  This practice has been linked to as far back as the Great Persian Empire.

The wheat is soaked and prepared for days and so the entire process takes up to a week.  Traditionally, the final cooking would take from late in the evening till the daylight and was a party, involving only women. This would be full of laughter and music and singing related songs. In Tajikistan they sing: “Samanak dar joushu mo kafcha zanem - digaron dar khobu mo dafcha zanem (Samanak is boiling and we are stirring it, others are asleep and we are playing daf (large frame drum)").

A theatrical show dedicated to Navrouz festival will take place at the Navrouzgoh Complex in Dushanbe on March 22 and sports activities will be organized at the Dushanbe Central Stadium and the Navrouzgoh Complex on March 24 and 25, Saidov said.

Horse race will take place at the Navrouzgoh Complex on March 24 and gushtingiri (Tajik national wrestling) competitions will be held at the Dushanbe Central Stadium on March 25.   

Navrouz, which literary means New Day in Persian, Dari and Tajik languages, is the traditional Iranian new year holiday, celebrated by Iranian and many other peoples.  It marks the first day of spring and is celebrated on the day of the astronomical vernal equinox (the start of spring in the northern hemisphere), which usually occurs on March 21 or the previous/following day depending on where it is observed.  Today, the festival of Navrouz is celebrated in many countries, including Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, as well as Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.  Many peoples in West and South Asia, Northeast China, the Crimea, as well as Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia also celebrate this holiday.  In September 2009, the UN''s cultural agency, UNESCO, included Navrouz in its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.  On February 23, 2010, the United Nations General Assembly recognized the International Day of Navrouz.