Iranians celebrate Nowruz with Ferdowsi

A large number of Iranians have gathered around the Tomb of Ferdowsi in Khorasan Razavi Province to celebrate the Persian New Year, Nowruz.

On Thursday, the third day of the New Year, Nowruz celebration was marked at tomb of Abul-Qasem Ferdowsi in Khorasan Razavi Province.

A part of the celebration was dedicated to pahlevani and zourkhaneh rituals.

Pahlevani and zourkhaneh rituals is the name inscribed by UNESCO for varzesh-e pahlavani, a traditional system of athletics and a form of martial arts originally used to train warriors in Iran (Persia).

Outside Iran, zourkhaneh can now also be found in Azerbaijan, and Afghanistan, and were introduced into Iraq in the mid-19th century by the Iranian immigrants.

It combines martial arts, calisthenics, strength training and music. It contains elements of pre-Islamic and post-Islamic Persian culture with the spirituality of Persian Shia Islam and Sufism.

Practiced in a domed structure called the zourkhaneh, training sessions consist mainly of ritual gymnastic movements and climax with the core of combat practice.

Ferdowsi was a Persian poet and the author of Shahnameh, which is one of the world's longest epic poems created by a single poet, and the greatest epic of Persian speaking countries.

Ferdowsi is celebrated as one of the most influential figures of Persian literature and one of the greatest in the history of literature.

The Tomb of Ferdowsi is a complex composed of a white marble base, and a decorative edifice erected in honor of the Persian poet Ferdowsi located in Tus, Razavi Khorasan Province.

It was built in the early 1930s and uses mainly elements of Achaemenid architecture to demonstrate Iran's rich culture and history.

MG/MG