DUSHANBE, March 20, 2015, Asia-Plus -- In Dushanbe, the main festive event to celebrate the Navrouz festival will take place on March 24.

The event will take place at the Navrouzgoh Complex, Shavkat Saidov, a spokesman for the Dushanbe Mayor’s office, told Asia-Plus in an interview. 

Besides, official events to celebrate Navrouz festival will be held in Dushanbe on March 21.  Tomorrow, festive events, involving artistes and representative of creative intelligentsia, will take place in all Dushanbe’s districts.

On the occasion of the Navrouz festival, the Dushanbe mayor’s office is also expected to arrange simultaneous wedding ceremony for 80 couples. 

A citywide action on planting trees will take place on March 23  

There will be six days off in Tajikistan this year on the occasion of the Navrouz holiday – from March 21 to March 26.

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.