The Muslim nation of Pakistan celebrates New Year according to Islamic calendar. It is popularly called as ‘Nawrooz’ or in its literal meaning a ‘New Day by Pakistanis. According to Georgian calendar, it falls in and around the month of March.
It is traditionally considered to be the initiation of the revitalization of the nature, after long winters. However, apart the religiously significant New Year day of ‘Nawrooz’, the New Year Day of January as per Georgian calendar is also celebrated with lot of spark and joy by the natives of Pakistan.
Nawrooz: The New Year in Pakistan
An extended six days celebration occurs all through the Pakistan to celebrate the essence of the festival of ‘Nawrooz’ New Year. People carrying lots of keenness, enthusiasm, and hope wait for the official announcement for the day of Nawrooz. Once, the day for Nawrooz is announced, everyone starts preparing for celebrating their New Year in concord with traditions and customs.
With Pakistan being a geographically large, with an equally varied cultures and traditions, one can sense a thick line of change in the ways as well as beliefs with which New Year celebrations are made in different provinces and regions of Pakistan. For instance, the Chitral region, which is more of a mountainous region in Pakistan, celebrates New Year as the occasion for harvesting crops of grapes and walnuts.
In their common language, they refer it as the time of ‘Mela Chiragan’ or ‘Basant’. In most of the other parts, which Muslim majority of population, people make a visit the mosques on the day of New Year, and offer prayers or Namaz to Allah to confer them with peaceful and contended time ahead.
One prominently followed tradition of Nawrooz or New Year involves burning piles of wood, as it is considered to burn off all sorts of evil energies of the past time. Everyone hope and pray for a more peaceful, happy, and prosperous future. In rural parts of the country, the New Year celebrations are more intensely and prominently celebrated as it is also the harvest time of the year. Beating drums, and lighting up oil lamps are considered as optimistic symbols of a better future, and thus people enthusiastically do it with their heart on New Year.
Prominent New Year Celebrations in Pakistan
In the major cities of Pakistan such as Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, etc., one can witness people having exhilarating celebrations. Preparations for the same begin quite a few days before the big day arrives. Usually, people engage in shopping buy themselves new clothes and household materials, and also fulfilling the unfulfilled wishes of the year. Women clean their houses; prepare special traditional dishes for the family members as well as friends and relatives visiting the houses on the day.
The moment of the arrival of New Year in Pakistan is extremely unique and different from any other place on the planet. With the clock ringing twelve, people celebrating on the streets fire in the air to mark their grand welcome for the New Year. Cities as well as rural parts of the country host cultural festivals, music festivals, modern day New Year parties, and live concerts which help people forget all their past troubles of the past, and move ahead to the new time with smiles and cheers all around.
It is the time of enthusiasm, optimism, and hope for a better, peaceful, and more stable future. Resolutions are made, new aspirations are born, and goals are decided for the coming time. Some major cities in Pakistan also organize fireworks show, which are set off at midnight.