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International Nowruz Day

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International Nowruz Day 21 March

What is Nowruz and why do we celebrate it?

The word Nowruz (Novruz, Navruz, Nooruz, Nevruz, Nauryz), means new day; its spelling and pronunciation may vary by country.

Nowruz marks the first day of spring and is celebrated on the day of the astronomical vernal equinox, which usually occurs on 21 March. It is celebrated as the beginning of the new year by more than 300 million people all around the world and has been celebrated for over 3,000 years in the Balkans, the Black Sea Basin, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Middle East and other regions.

Inscribed in 2009 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity as a cultural tradition observed by numerous peoples, Nowruz is an ancestral festivity marking the first day of spring and the renewal of nature. It promotes values of peace and solidarity between generations and within families as well as reconciliation and neighbourliness, thus contributing to cultural diversity and friendship among peoples and different communities.

Nowruz plays a significant role in strengthening the ties among peoples based on mutual respect and the ideals of peace and good neighbourliness. Its traditions and rituals reflect the cultural and ancient customs of the civilizations of the East and West, which influenced those civilizations through the interchange of human values.

Celebrating Nowruz means the affirmation of life in harmony with nature, awareness of the inseparable link between constructive labour and natural cycles of renewal and a solicitous and respectful attitude towards natural sources of life.

Background

International Nowruz Day was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly, in its resolution A/RES/64/253 of 2010, at the initiative of several countries that share this holiday. Under the agenda item of “culture of peace”, the member states of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iran (Islamic Republic of), India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Turkmenistan prepared and introduced a draft resolution (A/64/L.30) entitled “International Day of Nowruz” to the ongoing 64th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations for its consideration and adoption.

In the 71st plenary meeting on 23 February 2010, The General Assembly welcomed the inclusion of Nowruz in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on 30 September 2009.

It also recognized 21 March as the International Day of Nowruz, and invited interested Member States, the United Nations, in particular its relevant specialized agencies, funds and programmes, and mainly the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and interested international and regional organizations, as well as non-governmental organizations, to participate in events organized by States where Nowruz is celebrated.

https://www.un.org/en/observances/international-nowruz-day#:~:text=The%20word%20Nowruz%20(Novruz%2C%20Navruz,usually%20occurs%20on%2021%20March.

 

Proposal of the Pasargad Heritage Foundation Iranian Year 1403 (2024)

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The year, to be named for “Anahita, the Iranian goddess.”

Pasargad Heritage Foundation chooses and suggests a name for the upcoming year, as per annual tradition, on the eve of the biggest and most important Eid and celebration for Iranians.

This choice, as always, has been within the framework of the preservation and protection of cultural and historical heritage and for our national and global treasures. The legacies that remain at times in the shadows due to neglect and ignorance, and which can be, like in the past few decades, in danger of destruction due to cultural discrimination and anti-Iranism.

One of these legacies has been the personalities or myths and symbols that have had an important impact on the history of our land and human societies, due to their exceptionality in the scientific, literary, and cultural fields, and which can be included in the National Heritage List or UNESCO’s Memory of the World as well.

Accordingly, the Pasargad Heritage Foundation, on the eve of this solar year 1403, calls the new year the year of “Anahita, the Iranian Goddess,” so as to familiarize Iranians with this mythical symbol, and to raise awareness among friends of Iran and the world of intentional and unintentional destruction. In recent years, the fire temples and other temples of Anahita have attracted much attention.

Anahita is a female deity, known in Iranian and by non-Iranian myths as a woman who symbolizes power, purity, and guardianship of rain and waters. The goddess has been a symbol of a brilliant cultural period in the history of Iran. She is a lady praised by both the god of wisdom Ahura Mazda, by Zoroaster, the great sage, and by the people of Iran, men and women, who were in such a position that even the female deity was approachable to them.

In this way, by naming the Iranian year 1403 as that of Anahita, the Pasargad Heritage Foundation calls for the help of all friends of culture so that we can prevent the continued destruction of Anahita’s temples by utilizing international laws for the preservation of historical monuments.

Let us start our Iranian New Year, the beautiful global Nowruz, and the coming year with the name of a woman, a solar symbol for a large part of our culture and history, and a divine symbol that commanded the waters to cleanse the ugliness and pollution from our land.

A Happy Nowruz and Iranian New Year to everyone.

Recipient of the Nowruz Award from the Pasargad Heritage Foundation, year 1403 of the Iranian Calendar (2024) – In the field of Cultural Heritage

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Jaleh Amouzgar

Recipient of the Nowruz Award from the Pasargad Heritage Foundation, year 1403 of the Iranian Calendar (2024) –

In the field of Cultural Heritage:

Dr. Jaleh Amouzgar is a researcher of ancient Iranian culture and languages, a historian, translator, and university professor. She is this year’s recipient of the Nowruz Award in field of Cultural Heritage for her achievements as outlined below:

    • More than forty years of research and teaching Iranian culture, literature, history, and language.
    • An impressive lifetime of efforts to preserve and promote the cultural and historical heritage of Iran.
    • Tireless efforts to learn the ancient languages of Iran to read from important historical texts.
    • Valuable services in the identification of Pahlavi texts and Iranian myths.
    • Authoring of more than ten books and articles about Iran’s ancient culture and history.

Jaleh Amouzgar Bio

Jaleh Amouzgar was born in December 1939 in Khoy, Iran. She obtained a five-year scientific diploma from Irandokht Highschool in Khoy and a six-year diploma in Tabriz. To continue her studies, she joined the Faculty of Letters and Humanities at the University of Tabriz. As a top student in literature at university, she was awarded a scholarship, as many of the best students were awarded at that time. However, she was unable to benefit from the scholarship as her traditional family did not wish for her to travel abroad alone.

She was married and worked as a teacher in 1964 when the Ministry of Culture later announced that top students who did not initially use their award could reopen their cases. With this, she went to France and continued studying at Sorbonne University, now accompanied by her husband and daughter. Her PhD. dissertation is about Zoroastrian literature in the Persian language, including Zoroastrian writings and texts, which were written after Islam came to Persia but were according to Zoroastrian tradition. She graduated with her PhD and returned to Iran in 1969. She then worked at the Iranian Culture Foundation from the Ministry of Education. In the time, there were not any authentic Persian resources about Iranistics. However, she and other scholars, such as Mehrdad Bahar, Mohsen Abul-Qasemi, Fereydun Vahman, and Mohammed Salim, each started to study one Pahlavi book and wrote a glossary under the supervision of Parviz Khanlari. After two years, she worked as a professor at the University of Tehran. Regarding her studying days and university, she said, “I believed that we do not learn many things when we study, and it is the years later that one become familiar with the essence of working and knowledge.” To her, studentship is just the beginning, and one simply acquires knowledge of the methods of learning. It is just the beginning and not the end when someone acquires their PhD, and one feels before that that their works were immature.

Amouzgar has many works and texts which can be categorized into books, translations, and essays. She wrote Zoroastrian Myth of Life (with the collaboration of the late Ahmad Tafazzoli), Pahlavi Language, Literature, and Instructions, and Mythological History of Iran. As a translator, she translated the Book of Arda Viraf, as well as The actions of the kings in the traditions of ancient Iran, again in collaboration with Ahmad Tafazzoli.

 

Recipient of the Nowruz Award from the Pasargad Heritage Foundation, year 1403 of the Iranian Calendar (2024) – In the field of Environment and Natural Heritage

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Nasser Karami

Recipient of the Nowruz Award from the Pasargad Heritage Foundation, year 1403 of the Iranian Calendar (2024) –

In the field of Environment and Natural Heritage:

Dr. Nasser Karami is a climatologist, environmental expert, author, and pioneer of environmental journalism in Iran and a global environmental figure. He is this year’s recipient of the Nowruz Award in the field of Environment and Natural Heritage for his achievements as outlined below:

    • His dedicated efforts for more than four decades to preserve Iran’s natural heritage and environment.
    • His constant efforts to advance knowledge and awareness of environmental issues especially in Iran.
    • His timely warnings and clarifications regarding the dangers that threaten Iran’s environment.
    • Research and publication of various effective articles and books related to sustainable development, climate, and weather changes in Iran and abroad.
    • Having a permanent bond with Iran’s natural heritage and environmental issues and a lifetime of dedication to the betterment of Iran’s natural heritage and environment.

Nasser Karami ‌Bio

Dr. Nasser Karami, as a geographer, climatologist, and writer, has thirty years of experience in teaching and research on sustainable development and climate change in Iran and Norway. He worked as an associate professor in the Department of Geography at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. His research interests lie in sustainable development in dry areas, climate change, the relationship of totalitarianism and environment, and sustainable tourism.

His current projects cover the impacts of prolonged drought in the MENA region, Iranian classical techniques on survival and livelihood in arid deserts, impacts of totalitarian policies of some governments in the Middle East on drying up parts of the region, and historical dimensions of water issues in the Middle East. Some books by Dr. Karami, which have been published in Farsi, include Eternity (2011), Iran’s Path-finder (2008), New Concepts in Climatology (1999), Land and people of Oman (2008), Land and people of Kuwait (2008), Sustainable Development in Dry Areas (2001), Talkhak (1998). Iran’s Path-finder is a best-selling book on Iran’s tourism and geography and has been republished several times in the last ten years. Additionally, he has published scientific articles on climate change and the political dimensions of environmental degradation in the Middle East. Dr. Karami also has some experiences in regional planning and managing and advising development projects in some provinces in Iran. In Iran, Dr. Karami is known as an environmentalist journalist due to his twenty years of continuous columns in a best-selling newspaper in Iran, Hamshahri Daily. He has elected one of the thirty best faces of Iran’s environment in the past thirty years.

 

 

Recipient of the Nowruz Award from the Pasargad Heritage Foundation, year 1403 of the Iranian Calendar (2024) – In the field of Visual Arts

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Herbert Karim Masihi

Recipient of the Nowruz Award from the Pasargad Heritage Foundation, year 1403 of the Iranian Calendar (2024) –

In the field of Visual Arts:

Herbert Karim Masihi is a photographer of historical monuments and a photojournalist in the photographic genre of historical monuments. He is this year’s recipient of the Nowruz Award in the field of Visual Arts for his achievements as outlined below:

    • Tireless efforts in presenting Iran’s cultural and historical sites and monuments as subjects of his photography.
    • Combining of different styles of photography and the creation of a new style of photography of historical work, sites, and monuments, generating a great deal of attention and interest.
    • Encouragement through his photographs of viewers and the public to seeing the architectural details of Iran’s ancient monuments and advancing understanding of their values.

 

Herbert Karim Masihi

Herbert Karim Masihi was born in January 1980 to a middle-class Armenian family in Tehran, Iran. Masihi credits his family for his love of arts, saying, “art was a main pillar of life in my family and that greatly impacted my education.”

He has been pursuing photography for years. Initially, he wanted to become an archaeologist, but he was not able to find the opportunity to study it. Instead, he turned to photography, becoming a narrator of Iran’s history and culture—or as his friends say, a narrator of stones and shadows.

Some of his photographic works and projects have included:

    • Working in Persepolis as a research photographer with a focus on the Achaemenid era
    • Architectural photography with a focus on ancient works
    • Creating a photographic collection of the signatures of sculptors of the Achaemenid era in Iran
    • Creating a photographic collection of the Susa civilization
    • Creating a photographic collection of Chogha Zanbil, a story of ancient people to today
    • Creating a photographic collection of Isfahan Shah Mosque, Ishtar Gate, and the Islamic era
    • Creating a photographic collection of Arg-e Bam and the beginnings of the desert
    • Creating a photographic collection of Mount Khajeh and clay structures

 

Tool Analysis Suggests Neanderthals Mixed Compound Adhesives

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK—According to a statement released by New York University, stone tools recovered in France from the Neanderthal site of Le Moustier in the 1960s have been reexamined by an international team of researchers. The team, led by Patrick Schmidt of the University of Tübingen, detected traces of ocher and bitumen on several of the scrapers, flakes, and blades. “We were surprised that the ochre content was more than 50 percent,” Schmidt said. “This is because air-dried bitumen can be used unaltered as an adhesive, but loses its adhesive properties when such large proportions of ochre are added,” he explained. The researchers then tested liquid bitumen and bitumen mixed with various levels of ocher. They found that a mix made up of 55 percent ocher and 45 percent bitumen was just sticky enough to hold a stone tool and yet not stick to the hands, making it a suitable handle. Team member Radu Iovita of New York University said that microscopic examination of the ancient tools revealed wear on the sharp edges from use on other materials, and bright polish on other areas of the tools, where they may have been abraded by the movement of the tool within a grip made of ocher and bitumen. “Compound adhesives are considered to be among the first expressions of the modern cognitive processes that are still active today,” Schmidt concluded. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Science Advances.

 

Possible Royal Ring Discovered in Denmark

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EMMERLEV, DENMARK—Live Science reports that a metal detectorist discovered a gold ring set with a semiprecious red stone in the hamlet of Emmerlev, which is located in the Southern Jutland region of Denmark. Archaeologist Kirstine Pommergaard of the National Museum of Denmark said that the ring has been dated to the fifth or sixth century A.D., and may have belonged to a local royal family connected to the Frankish kings known as the Merovingians, based upon its spirals and trefoil knobs usually associated with Frankish craftsmanship. The red stone could also be a symbol of power, she added. “The gold ring is probably a woman’s ring and may have belonged to a prince’s daughter who was married to a prince in Emmerlev,” Pommergaard said. “Gold is typically [a] diplomatic gift, and we know that people have married into alliances.” She thinks the royal family in Emmerlev may have controlled an area between Ribe, a trade center in Southwest Jutland, and Hedeby, a Danish trade center in what is now Germany. Discoveries of other valuable ancient items in the surrounding area suggest that elites in Southern Jutland may have controlled important trade links and wielded greater influence than previously thought, added archaeologist Anders Hartvig of the Museum Sønderjylland.

 

DNA Study Identifies Chromosomal Disorders in Infant Remains

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ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA—According to a statement released by the University of Adelaide, statistician Adam “Ben” Rohrlach of the University of Adelaide, Kay Prüfer of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and an international team of researchers screened some 10,000 DNA samples taken from human remains dating from the Mesolithic period through the mid-nineteenth century for evidence of autosomal trisomies, or a third copy of one of the first 22 chromosomes in the human genome. The researchers were able to identify six infants with Down syndrome, which occurs when a person carries an extra copy of chromosome 21. “This is the first time we’ve been able to reliably detect cases [of Down syndrome] in ancient remains,” Rohrlach said. The study also identified the remains of a perinatal infant who had Edwards syndrome, a condition caused by three copies of chromosome 18. “These individuals were buried according to either the standard practices of their time or were in some way treated specially,” Rohrlach added. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Nature Communications.