LAHORE: The outpour of solidarity in the wake of the tragic attack on communities celebrating Nauroz or the Persian New Year at a shrine in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Wednesday is reflective of how important it is for people to come together in a sense of unity and peace. Earlier this week, several activists, families and students representing various ethnic groups and nationalities gathered in Lahore to celebrate Nauroz with cultural dance performances, poetry and songs.

The venue was a grassy lawn in a residence lined with trees, with carpets laid out for people to sit on. White streamers laced through tree branches and paper lanterns strung across the venue glittered alongside fairy lights. At the entrance was a Sindhi cultural display, and at other end a Haft Seen, a traditional Nauroz table display.

“Many communities in Pakistan recognise and celebrate Nauroz. However, given the hostility to our Indo-Persian cultural and aesthetic tradition, we have a situation where small communities hold private little celebrations of their own... These are often low-key affairs, so as to avoid arousing suspicion or hostility — which is based on xenophobia and sectarianism,” explains a member of the Nauroz Festival Committee that had organised the event.

The celebration began with Pashtun students from the Punjab University performing attan — a traditional folk dance. An audience of around 250 people, mostly dressed in white and red (the colours of Nauroz), sat in a circle around the performers, clapping and cheering them on. In another smaller circle next to the tables sat art students from various universities carefully painting eggs with watercolours. The decorated eggs were added to the Haft Seen as a symbol of new life. The dance performances continued throughout the evening representing a diverse range of religious and ethnic communities, including Baloch, Hazara, Sindhi, Seraiki, Gilgiti, Baltistani and Ismaili.

“It felt great to be a part of the Nauroz event,” says Farooq Tariq of the Awami Workers Party. “It was a celebration with dance, music, food, decorated eggs and colourful traditional dresses of various nationalities,” he said, adding that he particularly enjoyed a performance by students from Gilgit-Baltistan.

Dressed smartly in starched turbans, the Baloch students presented several dance and singing performances, and eventually people from the audience picked up the steps and joined them. The act of dancing in a circle, common to many cultures, represents strengthening communities and encouraging togetherness, and soon members of various ethnic groups began dancing together, trying to learn steps and moves from each other.

Speaking to Dawn, Ziyad Faisal, a journalist who attended the event, said the Nauroz Festival Committee in Lahore was able to do something quite refreshing. “They managed to bring together the disparate communities which celebrate the festival, and unite them with Punjabi youth. This turned it into one big celebration of spring, youth, wisdom, joy and pluralism.”

The event was announced on Facebook by the organising committee which said it was expecting at most 50 guests. Despite receiving four times as many guests as it had been expecting, the committee managed to get enough refreshments for everyone.

Enjoying her plate of mamtu, traditional steamed dumplings, Aima Khosa, one of the participants, said the event marked a coming together of various movements across the country in which people were talking about the need to end ethnic hostilities and to protect the rights of groups that have been marginalised for so long. “This is a time to celebrate peace,” she said.

The 250 mamtu supplied by Mamtu de Hunza, a cafe in Anarkali run by students from Hunza, ran out within no time. However, as the sun began to set, the organisers brought out massive pots of steaming Kabuli Pulao.

“We had on display the ‘Other Pakistan’, which is suppressed but which has the capacity to be something beautiful — if only it were allowed to be!” said a member of the festival committee. “This is very much in keeping with the lore around Nauroz. One of the oldest tales about its origins sees it as the moment when a great rebellion breaks out against the mythical tyrant Zahhak — as narrated in Ferdowsi’s epic Shahnamah.”

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2018