Enjoy Novruz Festival in Baku! [PHOTO]

23 March 2017 17:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

Baku is hosting a seven-day Novruz Festival, organized by the National Bureau of Tourism Promotion.

Festive concerts with participation of more than 40 collectives from different regions of Azerbaijan and other popular performers are organized at the Sabir Park, Trend Life reported.

Besides, artists present their works at the event and culinary specialists treat guests with dishes of national cuisine. Athletes, acrobats and magicians entertain those who come to the spring feast.

Guests can purchase different souvenirs, paintings, colorful works of craftsmen, national costumes, take pictures with lovely Novruz characters– Dada Gorgud and Bahari gizi (Spring girl).

On March 20-21, Azerbaijan celebrates one of the most ancient, beloved holidays – Novruz, which reflects the traditional values of country`s people.

Before the actual holiday, people mark four pre-holiday Tuesdays, each of which is dedicated to the awakening of one of the natural elements called Su Chershenbesi (Water Tuesday), Od Chershenbesi (Fire Tuesday) Hava Chershenbesi (Wind Tuesday) and Torpaq Chershenbesi (Earth or Last Tuesday).

People do house cleaning, plant trees, paint eggs, make national pastries such as shekerbura, pakhlava, shorgoghal and a great variety of national cuisine. Children jump over bonfires and run through the streets and knock on doors to ask for treats.

The holiday was given the status of an official holiday in Azerbaijan by a presidential decree dated 13 March 1990. In 2009, Novruz was included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and since then, March 21 was declared the International Day of Novruz.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova