A FESTIVAL THAT LIVES IN PEOPLE'S HEARTS

The Novruz spring festival is an important festival that links a vast number of cultures of the East speaking different languages and relating to various ethnic groups. It is included in UNESCO's intangible heritage list. And yet this festival has endured a great deal and has been banned several times in other countries - Turkey, Syria and Persia - and also in the former Soviet Union.

How did it all begin?

The Novruz was first banned in Azerbaijan in the seventh century, at the beginning of the Arab caliphate, but this attempt was not successful. The second period of the ban came in the 20th century. At the very beginning of the history of the Soviet state there was no single opinion among communists about the ethnic policy of the "minor peoples" and their cultural attributes. In his book about [Russian poet Bulat] Okudzhava the well-known Russian cultural historian and writer Dmitriy Bykov writes that in this context the Stalinist and Leninist lines differed greatly. According to the historian, correspondence of the beginning of the 1920s, when "the Caucasus had just been seized by the Bolsheviks", has been preserved. In the correspondence, Lenin, who was already seriously ill, recommends to Stalin that the republics should be given reasonable autonomy culturally and politically. The less loyal and more fanatical Stalin says that ethnic and cultural identity did not comply with the ideas of communism, and so it should be destroyed. At that time Stalin was people's commissar for questions of ethnic groups and it was he who had the last word.

However, during the first ten years no particular attention was paid to the ethnic-cultural question, the country was busy rebuilding the economy and this was a time of relative economic freedoms and the celebrated NEP [New Economic Policy]. The "tightening of the screws" began in 1930. During the period of repressions at the end of the 1930s pressure was stepped up on everything ethnic. It began with religious cults and mosques and churches were pulled down. Places which the population revered as sacred were desecrated. The Buzovna Pir "Ali Ayagi", for example, was damaged and partially destroyed. 

When they had finished with religion, the Soviet authorities set about ethnic traditions and the Novruz had been banned by the mid-1930s. It got caught up in the wave of the struggle against pan-Turkism. The celebration of its Roman-Christian equivalent - the New Year and the fir-tree - was also banned. The fir-tree was returned in the 1940s, the New Year angel at the top of the tree being replaced with the ideologically correct Soviet star. And the Novruz was somehow forgotten. However, the festival continued to be celebrated, but they tried not to publicize it.

Talking to R+, Latifa Israfilova, a pensioner, says: "In those terrible days one had to hide even from one's neighbours. We lived in a house which was full of intellectuals and party workers. So no-one greeted anyone on the Novruz, but there were houses where people did celebrate." She recalls how, as a young girl, she went to neighbours for the festival. "This was before the war, everyone was poor, and my friend's mother gave me some sweets and nuts and said: "Let this be our little secret," she says. "At the time I didn't understand what she meant and it was only later, when I was grown up, that I recalled this conversation."

Shixali Qurbanov

After Stalin's death and the famous 20th Party Congress (incidentally, the first for 20 years), which exposed the mass violence and the cult of personality, there began the so-called thaw. On the back of this the most progressive minds throughout the country began to "tackle" free-thinking ideas. "Interest clubs" - of writers, musicians (the celebrated ASC's - amateur song clubs) and poets - which were not under state control, started to be organized in a big way.

There was also a thaw in ethnic cultures. For example, in Azerbaijan they started to allow productions of works which had been considered pan-Turkist and their authors, who had been victims of Stalin's repressions, were rehabilitated.   

Then, at the very beginning of the 1960s, spearheaded by the author and playwright Sixali Qurbanov, the Novruz returned to Azerbaijan, and on an official level, too. At that time Qurbanov was a member of the CP CC [Communist Party Central Committee] of Azerbaijan, and then secretary of the Azerbaijani CC for ideology. As well as his party work, Sixali Qurbanov was also a writer and playwright (he wrote the plays "Poor Son of a Millionaire" and "Without You"). At his initiative, children's plays and celebrations to mark the Novruz were staged for the first time in theatres in 1962. Incidentally, the first Bahar Qizi at these events was the well known theatre and film actress, Safura Ibrahimova, who was then performing at the Academic National Drama Theatre and the Theatre of Musical Comedy.

However, as contemporaries recall, the thaw did not last long and by the end of the 1960s official celebrations of the Novruz were again banned. The period known in Soviet history as stagnation had begun. It was true, the Stalinist times were over and people could celebrate this festival at home without any fear.

A calendar holiday

The best shows were usually put on for the Novruz in the seventies and up to the end of the Soviet era. And although the celebrations were unofficial, and not meant to be "associated" with the Novruz, as often happened in those days, everyone considered them to be so. The Theatre of Musical Comedy, which staged its best shows on 21 March, stood out particularly in this respect.

he turning point did not come until 1991 when the holiday was not only legalized but placed officially on the calendar. Significantly, that year the Novruz was also officially legalized in Turkey, where it had been banned since 1925. Today the Novruz is celebrated at state level. Moreover, children's festival performances are staged on that day in the Young Spectator Theatre, the Azerbaijani State Puppet Theatre and other venues. Musical events are also now becoming a part of the Novruz celebrations and major productions are traditionally staged at the Heydar Aliyev Palace on that day. Street performances are traditionally held in Icheri Sheher [Icari Sahar; Baku Old City].

No less than 3,000 years have passed since the start of this spring festival. It has changed and it has been banned, it has produced new heroes and legends (each country has its own) and suffered a great deal, but at the end of the day it has become a true monument of human culture.

Samani

Samani is a sprouted wheat (malt), one of the main characteristics of the Novruz festival. It is a symbol of spring and fertility, well-being and sufficiency. It also has a magical and cult meaning.

Novruz treats

During the festival it is traditional to give festival "treats" to people (Novruz payi). Various delicacies, samani, candles and xonca are laid on a tray and passed round to neighbours and friends. If there is a girl in the family who is engaged to be married a special xonca is brought for her by the fianc?. On that day the future groom's family must immediately send gifts to the house of the future bride - sweet cookies, items of silver and gold, and so on. The bride's family must also show signs of attention to the groom's family.

Eavesdrop outside the doors 

On the last carsanba (the last Tuesday before the Novruz festival), or on any favourable evening of the week, people eavesdrop outside their neighbours' door. The first word or words that are overheard spell out the future of the listener (so in the evening of that day one should only talk about good things). For example, if the first words heard are "switch the light on", "all's well", and so on, the outcome will be good. But words like "switch off" or "it will be broken" could mean bad luck.

Kosa and Kecal

During the Novruz festival in Azerbaijan folk plays featuring characters such as Kosa (beardless) and Kecal (bald) are very popular. Kosa wears a funny costume of thick felt, daubs his bare knees and elbows with clay and soot, places a long-eared felt cap on his head and covers his face with a mask and beard. Various adornments are dangled round his neck and waist. He ties a cushion to his stomach to look pot-bellied and performs extravagant twists and turns while half-reciting and half-singing. To bring laughs he stumbles as though about to fall, then grimaces and makes a face. What is interesting is that the recital is sung alternately by Kosa himself and his assistant Kecal, who praises Kosa's skill and antics.

Carsanba festivity

Every year the four Tuesdays of winter, symbolizing water, fire, wind and earth, are celebrated on the eve of Novruz. Poems, songs, games and religious beliefs are performed and enacted to mark each of these days. On the last Tuesday (axir carsanba) before Novruz children knock on the doors of neighbours' houses, lay their caps by the door and hide. The owners of these houses must return the caps with festive treats. Also on that day candles are lit in every family which must not be extinguished before the proper time.