*Islamabad – Pakistan’s ministry for foreign affairs on Thursday hosted anevent for the first time to celebrate the Norouz Festival with activeparticipation of the embassy of Iran in Pakistan.*

Foreign Minister of Pakistan Khawaja Muhammad Asif was the chief guest onthe occasion while Ambassador of Iran to Pakistan Mehdi Honardoost,ambassadors from other Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) memberstates, foreign diplomats attended the event, IRNA has reported.

The countries of the ECO region including Iran, Pakistan, Turkey,Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistanand Uzbekistan set up stalls displaying different cultural items andtraditional cuisine.

The visitors took special interest in the Iranian stall and tasted thetraditional Iranian food. The Iranian handicrafts were also displayed atthe stall which attracted the people.

The event also provided an opportunity to all the ECO countries to furtherboost their ties by knowing each other’s culture in a better way.

Norouz, the traditional Iranian festival of spring is celebrated bymillions of people in Iran and a number of other countries across the globeincluding Pakistan.

It marks the first day of the first month (Farvardin) in the Iraniancalendar. It usually falls on March 21 or the previous or following day,depending on where it is observed.

The moment the sun crosses the celestial equator and equalizes night andday is calculated exactly every year, and families gather together toobserve the rituals.

The UN’s General Assembly recognized the International Day of Norouz in2010, describing it as a spring festival of Iranian origin, which has beencelebrated for over 3,000 years.