UN recognizes Navroz

"You will be happy to know that finally, after some years of delay, this news of Navroz being (given) the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) award as the Intangible Heritage of Humanity has come through officially,” Dr Shernaz Cama, director, UNESCO PARZOR Project informed Parsiana via e-mail on February 27, 2010. PARZOR was part of the team which prepared the candidature file for the award, working with the Iranian government and several other countries, representing the ministry of culture of the Indian government for this purpose, she writes, adding, "this news should be spread among the Zoroastrian community worldwide.”

A press release from the General Assembly of the UN states that "the International Day of Nowruz, a spring festival of Persian origin... is celebrated on March 21, the day of the vernal equinox, by more than 300 million people worldwide as the beginning of the new year. It 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.” The Assembly called on member states that celebrate the festival to "study its history and traditions with a view to disseminating that knowledge among the international community and organizing annual commemoration events.”

The text about the including of Navroz into the representative list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity dated September 30, 2009 mentions the festival’s "affirmation of life in harmony with nature, the awareness of the inseparable link between constructive labor and natural cycles of renewal and the solicitous and respectful attitude toward natural sources of life. It was introduced by the representative from Azerbaijan who said that as a holiday celebrated in many parts of the world, Navroz encouraged intercultural dialog and understanding. Iran’s representative marked its adoption by quoting lines of the Persian poet Jalaluddin Rumi that expressed the holiday’s theme of rebirth "on our planet and in our souls.”