Several mass festive concerts to be held in Tajik capital on the occasion of the Navrouz festival

Open air concerts will take place in all four districts of Dushanbe, according to the Dushanbe Administration press center.  

In the Shohmansour district, the concert will take place in Kurushi Kabir (Cyrus the Great) Park; in the Ismoili Somoni district, the concert will be held in Ayni Park; in the Firdavsi district, the concert will be held Firdavsi Park; and in the Sino district, the concert will take place  in the square near the Prosecutor-General’s Office.  

Besides, a festive concert featuring known Tajik singers such as Surayo Qosimova, Shabnami Surayo, Khairddin Sharifi, Madina Aqnazarova, Safamuhammad Rustam, Chorshanbe Alovatov and Zafar Abdualimov will be held in the Amphitheater.

Organized by the Dushanbe Administration, this concert will take place on March 23.  

Horse races and wrestling competitions will take place at the Navrouzgoh Complex (Dushanbe’s hippodrome) on March 21 and 22 respectively. 

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.