2012 Grand Ceremony of Nowruz Day in Shufu County, Xinjiang

SHUFU COUNTY, XINJIANG, China, March 22, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Spring returns and everything takes on a completely new look. On March 21, 2012, Nowruz Day was held in the Culture Activities Center of Shufu County which is located in Kashgar Region, Xinjiang. 'Nowruz Day' in its Old Iranian origins means "the day of spring rains", and it is celebrated annually on March 21, which is equal to the March equinox, representing the coming of spring. Every year Uighur, Tajik, Tatar, Kazakh, Uzbek and other Islamic minorities would celebrate Nowruz Day in various forms, such as dance, acrobatics and so on. An original report on this Nowruz Day by City Channel of CRI Online follows:

It is told that Nowruz Day is a traditional festival of minorities in Xinjiang, which means "early spring" or "new hope", so it shares the name "festival of greeting the arrival of spring ". Nowruz Day, with a history of more than 3000 years, is defined not only as the day of preparation for spring ploughing production or greening, beautifying and cleaning the environment, but also as the festival of art and sports. During the opening ceremony, the county magistrate of Shufu County, Anvar Tuerxun, addressed the event with a speech. He said, "22 years ago, our county took the lead in recovering the traditional Nowruz Day, and ever since we have made a great effort to uncover the connotation and tradition of the festival and apply for major project of intangible cultural heritage. Under the influence of our efforts, Nowruz Day spread throughout all regions in Xinjiang, showing a prosperous picture of vitality."

The ceremony was presided by Abulimiti Yusuyun, Shufu County Standing Committee of CPC and Minister of Propaganda. Anvar Tuerxun, the county's head commissioner of People's Government gave a fervent speech. Reporters at the scene noted that people during this holiday were in an array of nationalities from 13 towns and five counties, such as Tuokezhake, WuPaer, Tashenmilike, Tierimu of Fushu County which brought a bright expression of love and unity, watching magnificent floats and performances of song and dance. The passionate "Sama Dance " and " Zi Kumu Dance" with unique form won audiences' intermittent cheering. The reporter also saw a Nuo Luzi old man dressed in the characteristic national costume who sang and danced to tell the new generation the history of Nowruz Day with enormous fun and warmth.

Through communication with the publicity department of county Party committee, the reporter learned about that the celebration activities on Nowruz Day which involved a lot of singing and dancing group performances, farmers' cultural performances, launching national traditional sports activities such as wrestling, games involving animals such as cocks and goats, etc as well as organizing Avanti Chorus of Shufu County to deliver entertainment programs to rural areas, which has marked the beginning of spring ploughing. All prayed for a good coming year and wished everybody much happiness and that everything goes well.

After the opening ceremony, Li Xinquan, the Party Secretary of Xinjiang Shufu County accepted interviews by reporters, stating, "The celebration of this Nowruz Day will take profound and lasting affect. All towns and departments at all levels will take the opportunity of celebrating Nowruz Day to strengthen spring ploughing preparation work, carry out the activity of "Delivering Four Programs to Rural Towns and Six Programs into Villages" in a deep way, transform the work style of officials in basic levels fundamentally and serve the general public. We are making great efforts to develop Nowruz Day into a festival of promoting spring ploughing preparation, tradition transformation ,civilization upgrading, general public service and social harmony.