It is the New Year by solar calendar in Central, South and South-West Asia countries. According to sources, Navruz was one of the biggest festivities among Iranian and Turkic peoples. Mahmud al-Kashgari in his work called "Diwanu l-Lugat al-Turk" mentions about many folk songs, which were dedicated to Navruz. Also, the information about Navruz festivity can be found in such works as "The remaining traces of past centuries" (written by Abu Rayhan al-Biruni), "Navruzname" (by Omar Khayyam), and those written by Alisher Navoi, Zahir-ud-Din Muhammad Babur and other scholars. In the territory of Central Asia Navruz festivity was associated with the beginning of the New Year. As such, the preparations for it began several days ahead. Wheat was germinated and from its sprouts sumalak was cooked, dumplings with greens and samosas with mint were prepared. Also folk games were organized (such as horseracing, uloq, kurash, etc.), promenades were arranged, songs about spring were sung, terma and dostons were performed (by bakhshis). On the first day of Navruz children, living in rural areas, gathered in groups and sang songs dedicated to Navruz before the doors of houses. And the owner of the house, hearing these songs, came out, gave presents to children, and treated them with food. In their turn, children distributed one part of the food among widows and orphans living in the village. All these traditions and customs are still alive.

Afghanistan,Azerbaijan,India,Iraq,Iran,Kyrgyzstan,Kazakhstan,Pakistan,Tajikistan,Turkmenistan,Turkey,Uzbekistan 2016

It is the New Year by solar calendar in Central, South and South-West Asia countries. According to sources, Navruz was one of the biggest festivities among Iranian and Turkic peoples. Mahmud al-Kashgari in his work called "Diwanu l-Lugat al-Turk" mentions about many folk songs, which were dedicated to Navruz. Also, the information about Navruz festivity can be found in such works as "The remaining traces of past centuries" (written by Abu Rayhan al-Biruni), "Navruzname" (by Omar Khayyam), and those written by Alisher Navoi, Zahir-ud-Din Muhammad Babur and other scholars. In the territory of Central Asia Navruz festivity was associated with the beginning of the New Year. As such, the preparations for it began several days ahead. Wheat was germinated and from its sprouts sumalak was cooked, dumplings with greens and samosas with mint were prepared. Also folk games were organized (such as horseracing, uloq, kurash, etc.), promenades were arranged, songs about spring were sung, terma and dostons were performed (by bakhshis). On the first day of Navruz children, living in rural areas, gathered in groups and sang songs dedicated to Navruz before the doors of houses. And the owner of the house, hearing these songs, came out, gave presents to children, and treated them with food. In their turn, children distributed one part of the food among widows and orphans living in the village. All these traditions and customs are still alive.

Afghanistan,Azerbaijan,India,Iraq,Iran,Kyrgyzstan,Kazakhstan,Pakistan,Tajikistan,Turkmenistan,Turkey,Uzbekistan 2016

Denoting ""carpet-washing ceremony"" (qāli""carpet""-šuyān""washing ceremony""), Qālišuyān manifests as a huge gathering in Ardehāl, at a 800m-long site, between Emāmzāde Soltān Ali ebn Mohammad Bāqer Mausoleum (abbreviated as Soltān Ali) and the holy stream beside Šāhzāde Hoseyn Mausoleum yard, where a holy carpet is washed as part of a live ritualistic procedure. Unlike the majority of Iranian rituals that follow a rotating lunar calendar, Qālišuyān is attended according to a fixed solar-agricultural calendar, requiring it around the nearest Friday to the 17th day of the month of Mehr (October 8th), called Jom'e-ye Qāli (""carpet Friday""). Thousands of people of Fin and Xāve constitute the practitioners; a greater crowd attends as witnesses. On Jom'e-ye Qāli morning, the people of Xāve gather at Soltān Ali to sprinkle rose-flower on a donated carpet they select. Having done the wrapping rituals, they, then, deliver it to the people of Fin outside. Holding neatly cut and beautifully decorated wooden sticks, the people of Fin run to take the lead in getting a grasp of the carpet, and carrying it to the running water, cleaned of pollutions and mixed with rose-water. A corner of the carpet is rinsed; the rest is covered with drops sprinkled with the sticks. The carpet is, then, returned to the mausoleum and delivered to the servants inside. The rituals are to express love and loyalty toward Soltān Ali, who is claimed to have been martyred in the same place and carried to his resting place on a carpet, instead of a shroud. Asserted, mainly, through oral history, Soltān Ali enjoyed a holy stance among the people of Kāšān and Fin of 1,300 years ago, who depended on his spiritual guidance. He was, finally, murdered by jealous governors. The story continues that the corpse was found, three days later, by the people of Fin who carried it in a carpet to the stream of Šāhzāde Hoseyn Mausoleum, Ardehāl, where the people of Xāve joined in washing and burying him. The present-day carpet-washing rituals are to commemorate the sad burial. A number of peripheral activities have emerged alongside Qālišuyān, too: - J ār: Oral proclamation of the ""carpet-Friday"" date by an elder; - Donated food: Distributed by witnessing people - Ta'ziye and other ritualistic performing arts: Performed peripheral to the main rituals; - Gatherings of people on the site, which last for several days.

Iran 2012

Literally the word Ta’azyeh means “mourning”, and figuratively it refers to a kind of ritual and religious theatre based on religious events, historical and mythical stories, and Iranian folk tales, and there are four basic elements in it: poem, music, song and motion. Ta’azyeh is a type of theatre with many different characters, each of which having its own features, differences, colors, clothes, tools and requirements. It is performed in the form of symbols, conventions, codes and signs which are known by Iranian spectators, and on a stage which is placed in the centre without any lighting and decoration. The place where a Ta’azyeh is performed is called Tekyeh. Apart from some feel-good Ta’azyehs, the main subject of most of them is the conflict between “good” and “evil” and the source of Ta’azyeh scripts has often been the event of Karbala where the third Imam of Shiites, Imam Hussein, and his family were killed after a strong resistance in a battle between seventy two members of the “good” and twenty thousand members of the “evil” army in the Moharram month of the year 60 in the lunar Hegira calendar (a Muslim system of dividing the year of 354 days into 12 months and starting to count the years from the Hegira i.e. the migration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in AD 622). It is lunar because it is based on the movement of moon around the earth. This calendar is used in Arab countries. There is also a solar type of Hegira calendar based on the movement of earth around the sun which is officially used in Iran). Therefore, this theatre is performed in Moharram more than other months of the year in Tekyehs, streets, and in the garden of houses. Performing Ta’azyeh has a prominent role in the Iranian vulgar culture, literature and art. The concept and the performance style of Ta’azyeh leads to the maintenance of spiritual values, altruism and friendship. It motivates the religious emotions of the masses, purifies the soul, inspires the audience to ethics and a sense of resistance against oppression, and creates cooperation and sympathy among the performers and the spectators. Taazyieh preserves the old traditions, the national culture and the mythology of Iran, and plays a major role in preserving other types of art as well. Its effect on the audience is so great that many of the proverbs of ordinary people are taken from this type of theatre. Moreover, because of its flexibility, it has been able to adjust itself with different cultures of Iranian tribes; therefore, Ta’azyeh has become the common language of different tribes and has been prominent in creating “unity” among them and helping them communicate and share creativities. Ta’azyeh performers are divided into two main groups: agreeing performers (the Good forces) and disagreeing performers (the Evil forces). Agreeing characters wear green, white and blue costumes as a symbol of goodness and peace and sing Iranian folk songs. Disagreeing characters on the other hand wear red, orange and bright colors as a symbol of cruelty and brutality and speak aggressively in a declamatory style. Music is used in two forms: with songs and with musical instruments. Moeen-ol-boka, the director of Ta’azyeh, who has complete knowledge of music, poetry and all the techniques of Ta’azyeh, is actively present on the stage. Women are less involved in Taazyieh and the roles of women are also played by men drawing a veil over their faces. Each Ta’azyeh script has its own subject and requires its own special tools, costumes, conventions, symbols and music. Observing the rules of performance, the audience also cooperates in some scenes by chorusing the song or the poem. There are even some people who have taken vows of food (taking a vow to give food to people, especially poor people is very common in Iran) who serve the spectators during the play and fulfill their vows. Business people and official fraternities and small public groups called “religious groups”, the number of which reaches three thousand, attempt to perform Ta’azyeh in many areas and provide the tools and costumes, and also decorate the area where Ta’azyeh is going to be performed. In general, all the script writers, actors, spectators, and sponsors of this ritual play are from the people in the street who have different jobs during the year and perform this theatre only to reap otherworldly rewards. Taazyieh has also caused many skills to develop. For instance: calligraphy artists by writing Ta’azyeh scripts, musicians by holding classes of singing and playing instruments, painters by painting the events on large curtains, “curtain narrators” by narrating the stories painted on the curtains with a good voice for people, poets by composing new poems for the dirges in the intervals of Ta’azyeh, industrial workshops by making different tools and instruments used in Ta’azyeh, tailoring and handicraft workshops by making different costumes and masks and accessories for Ta’azyeh, cultural institutes by making films of Ta’azyeh and making them readily accessible to the public, documentarists by making documentaries about Ta’azyeh and preparing them to be shown on TV, each help develop a special skill through Ta’azyeh.

Iran 2010