A Musical Celebration of Nowruz
When: Fri 18 March 2022 19:30-21:30
Where: KLT
A musical celebration of Nowruz – Friday 18 March 2022 at 7.30pm
You are invited to a Musical Celebration of Nowruz with Persian, Kurdish and Azari music, organised by Peyman Heydarian of the Voice of Santur and the SOAS Iranian music society. The programme starts with a Persian poem and a few words about Nowruz in Shahnameh of Ferdowsi by Iranian scholar, Dr. Mahmoud Kavir.
Date: Friday 18 March, 2022
Venue: Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS University of London, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
Time: concert starts at 7.30pm, doors will be open from 7.15pm
Tickets: £25 Full / £15 Concs / £10 students
Iranian music on SU website: https://soasunion.org/activities/society/6624/
Artists’s Website: www.thesantur.com
Email: soasiranianmusic@yahoo.co.uk
FB: https://www.facebook.com/londonpersianband
Looking forward to seeing you on Friday 18 March.
Best Wishes,
SOAS Iranian music Society and The Voice of Santur
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About Nowruz
Nowruz / Newroz / Novruz (tr. New day) is the Persian, Kurdish and new year. The new year's eve falls on 20 March 2022. Nowruz is the first day of spring and is celebrated and observed by the people of the related cultural continent and has spread in many other parts of the world, including parts of Central Asia, Caucasus, South Asia, Northwestern China, the Crimea and some groups in the Balkans. On the eve of Newroz, bonfires are lit in Kurdistan. The fire is a symbol of the passing of the winter and the dark season, winter, and arrival of spring and light. It is associated with resurrection the Kurdish identity. The famous Kurdish song for Nowruz was composed and performed by Mojtaba Mirzadeh and Hassan Zirak:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdRg0OcTxM8
In Azerbaijan songs for Novruz are sung and different activities such as tightrope walking and wrestling take place in the public squares. It is said that the weather of the first day of Novruz indicates spring, the second day after it is summer, the third day is autumn and the fourth is winter.
Iranians make a special Nowruz table and get together, give gifts to each other and celebrate the Nowruz until the 13th and last day of Nowruz, when everyone goes out for picnics. In 2010 the UN General Assembly recognised the International Day of Nowruz, describing it a spring festival of Persian origin which has been celebrated for over 3,000 years. Originally being a Zoroastrian festival, and the holiest of them all, Nowruz is believed to have been invented by Zoroaster himself. Since the Achaemenid era the official year has begun with the New Day when the Sun leaves the zodiac of Pisces and enters the zodiacal sign of Aries, signifying the Spring Equinox. The term Nowruz first appeared in writing in Persian records in the 2nd century AD, but it was also an important day during the time of the Achaemenids (c. 548–330 BC), where kings from different nations under the Persian empire used to bring gifts to the King of Kings of Persia on Nowruz.