The Dushanbe City Hall has decided to postpone the main festive celebrations dedicated to Navrouz from March 21 to March 24 due to bad weather that is expected to hit the Tajik capital from March 21-22.  

According to data from the country’s Hydrometeorology Center (Hydromet), a changeable weather and heavy rainfall are expected in Dushanbe these days.  

As it had been reported earlier, the Dushanbe administration, taking into account the convergence of Navrouz and the holy month of Ramadan, had previously decided to move the Navrouz festive celebrations to the evening on March 21, when the fast is broken   

All cultural events dedicated to Navrouz festival have also been postponed and will be held in all Dushanbe’s parks on March 23.  Local chefs are expected to delight residents and guests of the capital with dishes of national cuisine in evening of this day

The main festive celebrations dedicated to Navrouz with participation of President Emomali Rahmon will take place in Istiqlol Square in Dushanbe on March 24.  

This year, Muslims who celebrate Navrouz, including all of Tajikistan’s 10 million population, will have to reconcile these traditions with the obligations of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan as Navrouz festival this year falls on Ramadan.

During Ramadan, which is due to begin in Tajikistan this year on March 11, Muslims will refrain from eating and drinking from dawn to dusk.

Tajiks together with more than 300 million people in a dozen countries, including Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iraq and Turkiye, will wish each other “Navrouz Muborak” or “Happy Navrouz” on March 21, when the traditional Iranian new year holiday is celebrated.

Celebrated for some 3,000 years, the Navrouz festival begins on the first day of spring celebrating the rebirth of nature and being celebrated almost a week in Tajikistan.

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 on its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.  On February 23, 2010, the United Nations General Assembly recognized the International Day of Navrouz.