Navruz festival welcomes spring

For many in the U.S., spring marks the onset of a warmer season and the arrival of holidays such as Easter and Passover. For others the spring equinox carries a different significance -- a new year, which is celebrated by several central Asian countries during the Navruz holiday.\nIn recognition of this important holiday, IU's Navruz Student Association will organize a festival program at 2 p.m. tomorrow entitled "Navruz Festival 2002: A Celebration of Life" in the Wilkie Auditorium. Events include dancing, a cultural exhibit and authentic cooking -- all free to the public.\nNavruz, which literally translates to "new day" in Persian, celebrates the beginning of the Zoroastrian New Year -- with hopes and resolutions for a positive and peaceful start to a new year. It is celebrated March 20 and 21 each year by several countries, such as Turkey and Iran, in addition to former Soviet republics such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.\nSaturday's festivities at the Wilkie Auditorium include events such as a cultural concert performance by representatives from Navruz countries with costumes and instruments. An artifacts exhibit and authentic food dishes will follow the concert at the Greenleaf Hall in the Forest Quad.\nFor those who celebrate Navruz, the holiday gives people a chance to forget about negative occurrences from the previous year and begin the new year with a clean slate and a renewed happiness.\nOne of the cultural rituals performed on the eve of Navruz is jumping over a fire, which is a central element of the Zoroastrian religion -- along with water, land and air.\n"The fire kills the evil demons and also signifies the beginning of a new life," said graduate student Anar Valiyev, public relations officer of the Navruz Student Association. "By jumping over the fire during Navruz, you purify yourself from the bad thoughts and deeds that you did last year and start the next year pure."\nIn its eighth year of celebration at IU, the Navruz holiday sparks an especially important recognition in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. Navruz will give people an opportunity to unite against terrorism and educate the Bloomington community about culture and people in the various central Asian countries and their efforts and resistance against all forms of terrorism, organizers said. \n"The Navruz celebration here at IU will not only bring many different cultures together but will also help present them to people from all over the world," said senior Ekrem Ozer, president of the Turkish Student Association. "After Sept. 11, we need to dig out various similarities as much as we can and rediscover a simple truth -- that we are all human beings."\nThis year, the Navruz Student Association dedicates the celebration to the heroes and victims of Sept. 11 and attributes the "Celebration of Life" attachment of this year's festival in remembrance of the event.\nEmilbek Juraev, president of the Navruz Student Association, is looking forward to the celebration of Navruz and wishes to expose the IU community to the hope and happiness it represents.\n"The major importance of Navruz is not that we should just note this date on the calendar," Juraev said. "The main purpose is to inform the IU community about the countries that celebrate this holiday, the people, and it is exactly the kind of holiday that brings out the beauty of these different cultures"