Launched by Kazakhstan, tradition to celebrate Nowruz with a festive gala event in Washington to continue for the third year
Last year, in his letter to President Obama on the occasion of the Nowruz celebration in Washington, the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev expressed his support for the Nowruz Commission and stressed that celebrating Nowruz in the United States was "yet another clear testimony that the U.S. is making immense contribution to mutual understanding among nations." Nazarbayev also expressed confidence that "the noble activities of the Nowruz Commission will provide an impetus for further strengthening the friendship between our countries."
According to Silk Road Newsline, Saturday black-tie gala event at the magnificent Hall of the Americas at the historic OAS building across from the White House is expected to be attended by high-ranking officials of the Obama administration, members of the U.S. Congress, representatives of the U.S. business and cultural communities as well as ambassadors and senior diplomats from all countries who recognize and celebrate Nowruz. Hall of the Americas with its impressive marble columns, Tiffany chandeliers, and ornate stained glass windows is where the highest ranking meetings of the inter-American system take place. This is also where numbers heads of state, including Pope John Paul II, have addressed the OAS and where the historic Panama Canal Treaties were signed in 1977.
Co-founded by the Ambassador of Kazakhstan to the United States ErIan Idrissov and Bijan Kian, the then-member of the Board of Directors and a Chairman of the Audit Committee of the U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank), together with Nasser Kazeminy, Chairman of the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations at Ellis Island, the Nowruz Commission aims at keeping the time tested, revered, universal tradition of Nowruz alive and to educate the greater communities in the United States about the significance of Nowruz.
"My personal conviction is that the best ambassadors are people of culture who carry the cultural heritage of each and every nation and I think that no relationship will be successful unless people of different cultures do understand each other culturally, do understand each other historically, where they come from and where they hail from," Erlan Idrissov, Kazakhstan's Ambassador in the U.S., told Silk Road Newsline in an interview.
Idrissov and Kian, who was the highest ranking Iranian American in the United States Government at the time, began discussing the idea of establishing a multi ethnic commission with representation from all countries who recognize and celebrate Nowruz in March of 2008 when they met at the first ever celebration of Nowruz at the White House hosted by the U.S. President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush. Two years later, on March 17, 2010, the Nowruz Commission was formally launched in Washington with the inaugural gala hosted by the U.S. Library of Congress and U.S. Congressmen Ed Royce (R-CA) and Howard Berman (D-CA) serving as honorary co-chairmen of the event. The account of the inauguration was registered in the Congressional Record.
According to its charter, the main mission of the Nowruz Commission is to promote and preserve the ancient tradition of celebrating the arrival of spring and celebrating Nowruz every year in Washington. In addition the Commission is using Nowruz as a platform to make a difference in the countries and among the people who recognize and celebrate Nowruz. It is also using the time honored universal traditions of Nowruz like "giving," "caring" and "renewal" of friendships to make a positive change in the participating nationalities and beyond.
On March 17, 2011, the Nowruz Commission hosted its second celebration of Nowruz at the Library of Congress which coincided with the first anniversary of the Commission. Special highlights of the celebration were a message from President Barack Obama delivered by Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor and assistant to the President, and a letter addressed to President Obama from President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan read by Ambassador Idrissov.
At the last year's event, the the Nowruz Commission announced the new members of the Board of Directors including William Veale, Executive Director of the U.S.-Kazakhstan Business Association and Professor Kamoludin Abdullaev from Tajikistan, as well as the new members of the Advisory Council including Dussen Kasseinov, Secretary General of the International Organization of Turkic Culture (TURKSOY) and former Minister of Culture of Kazakhstan, and Darkan Nurmangambet, President of Kazakh-American Association.
In his special videotaped message on the occasion of Nowruz released by the White House last year, U.S. President Barack Obama called Nowruz "a celebration that serves as a bridge from the past to the future."
"This is a season of hope and renewal," said Obama who is expected to release this year's Nowruz message over the weekend.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is also expected to follow the tradition and release her own congratulatory message on the eve of Nowruz.
