Navroz celebrated with fervour in Kashmir

Srinagar, Mar 21: Holding a religious significance mainly for the Shia Muslims, the Persian New Year Navroz was celebrated with traditional and religious fervor in the Valley on Tuesday along with the other parts of the world.
Many locals here in Srinagar said that while marking the celebrations, families mainly from the Shia community wish and greet each other ‘Navroz Mubarak’, with children wearing new dresses.
“The day starts with the special prayers and during the day friends and relatives visit the families to greet each other, wearing new clothes children go to the parks with their peers”, Imran Ahmad, a local Srinagar resident said.
He said that on this special festive day Muslims mainly from the Shia community during pre-dawn hours go to the graveyards to pray for their deceased family members or relatives and that a day before the marking of the festival they also prepare special dishes, which include fish, meat, chicken and Nadroo.
Navroz, which literally means a ‘new day’, is the beginning of the New Year of the Persian calendar. The day also marks the beginning of farming and plantation in the Kashmir valley, the festive day also marks the formal arrival of the spring season in the valley, while farmers believe that seeds sown on Navroz blooms into healthy plants. (KNO)