‘UNESCO Nowruz listing promotes peace’

UNESCO’s registration of Nowruz, the traditional Persian New year’s festival, promotes global peace, an Iranian official says.

The registration of Nowruz on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List plays an important role in fostering friendship and unity among member states, said Mohammad-Hassan Talebian, the deputy director of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicraft Organization.

Nowruz is the traditional Iranian festival of spring, considered as the start of the New Year among Iranians.

UNESCO recognized Nowruz as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity based on an initiative undertaken by Iran, India, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Turkey.

In 2014, five other countries, including Iraq, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan, asked to join the project which led to a review of the case and resubmission of the proposal to UNESCO.

Moreover, additional countries have expressed their interest in seeking to join the Nowruz dossier, including Mongolia, Tanzania and China.

So far, 11 cases of Iran intangible heritages have been compiled on the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The most recent submission is that of Iran’s flatbread (Lavash).

AI/FGF