Group to celebrate Persian New Year

The Navruz Student Association will prepare native Persian dishes and entertainment for the 10th annual Navruz Festival to be held this Saturday in Willkie Auditorium. The festival begins at 2 p.m. and is free and open to the public.\nNavruz, meaning “new day” in Persian, is a celebration indigenous to Central Eurasian states to celebrate the New Year. Iranians, Turks, Azerbaijanis, Central Asians and many peoples in the Caucasus and Afghanistan celebrate this holiday, according to the association’s Web site. Navruz Student Association President and IU graduate student David Knighting describes it as “a combination of New Year’s and a spring festival.”\nThe festival will include numerous traditional dishes served in the Eurasian states. Gulnisa Nazarova, an assistant professor in IU’s Department of Central Eurasian Studies, will be cooking her version of pilaf, which was recently named the winner for best pilaf in Bloomington during a cook-off on March 6.\nNazarova will be honored at the festival when her dish is served to about 300 people.\n“I am so excited about it because it’s for 300 people, and it’s not easy to cook,” Nazarova said. “We will be using a big pot.” \nIn addition to the food, Knighting said that dancing, music and perhaps poetry recitation will take place. Visiting Uzbek scholar Sitora Khatamova said the festival will entail four of the time-old Central Eurasian dances specifically reserved for Navruz and the coming of spring.\n“It is our tradition to dance as partners,” Khatamova said. “Spring symbolizes love, beauty and life, and we show that in dance.” \nKhatamova describes a dance in which girls sing and stage while the boys hide and watch. All characters then dance together in harmony.\nIn addition to the Navruz Student Association, the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center also helps promote and advertise the event.