New Year fest marked at Willkie

Two women stand in a corner of Willkie Quad wearing ornate dresses of pink, orange, red and green. As they talk among themselves in the hallway, people scramble throughout the Willkie Auditorium, putting the finishing touches on details of the ninth annual Navruz Festival, an event held Sunday that included cultural exhibits, a program of performances and food sampling.\nMembers of the Navruz Student Association said Navruz is an ancient family celebration of the New Year for Iranians, Turks, Azerbaijanis, Central Asians and Afghanis.\nDavid Knighting, temporary president of the Navruz Student Association, said the celebration is important because the number of people around the world who celebrate Navruz is large. Knighting started fundraising in late fall 2005 so the association would have money for renting a building, food and technical needs.\nZebo Abduvakhabova, an exchange student from Uzbekistan, answered questions from attendees about her table on clothing from Uzbekistan. She came to IU on a full-ride scholarship as a foreign language teaching assistant.\n"It's a really great honor to represent my country and share with nations as culture ambassadors," she said.\nBill Johnston, professor of comparative literature and applied linguistics, said he attends the festival every year.\n"It's important because Central Asia's very important to the IU community," he said.\nBecause he's a linguist, Johnston said, his favorite aspect of the festival is the opportunity to hear all the different languages being used.\nA variety of languages wasn't the only multicultural aspect of the Navruz Festival. \n"All the performances here are very diverse and exciting," emcee Fatima Morrisroe told the crowd. Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Uyghurstan and Azerbaijan were all represented in the program of performances. The program included singing, dancing, the playing of traditional instruments and poetry readings. Participants from other foreign countries joined in the performances, as well as a group of IU students studying Uzbek who acted out a short play, recited poetry and performed an Uzbekistan folk dance.\nOne performer was Rema Maimait, a native of China. Maimat came from the University of Cincinnati to perform the Uyghur folk dance. She said it was worth the trip because she wants to introduce people to her culture.\nLanguage students, native speakers and the general public comprised the festival's audience. Small children playing together ran through the rows of seats, while other spectators helped their elderly parents find a chair.\nIn the back of the auditorium, Elena Petroska sat with her two sons, Paul, 8, and Marko, 4. She said although her sons' father is American, they have spent time in her native country, Macedonia. She said she brings her family to things like the Navruz Festival because she thinks it is interesting to see multicultural characteristics.\nMorrisroe, a native of Kyrgyzstan and outreach coordinator for the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center, said she was pleased with the festival. She said lots of people came, so that means they were thinking about it and looking forward to it.\n"After nine years, it's really becoming something important and traditional," she said.