Chinese Ambassador Wishes Happiness for Nations in Spring Fest

Every year is a witness to a spring fest where the Chinese Ambassador cherishes the arrival of the new season for Iran and China, AVA Diplomatic reports.

Niavaran Palace Complex in northern Tehran was the scene to a grand traditional festival of mixed Chinese-Iranian roots to celebrate the Chinese Spring Festival and the coming Iranian Nowruz.

As civilizations with deep historical roots and rich cultural traditions, Iran and China have a lot in common. The Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival, which fell on February 8 this year and the fast approaching Iranian New Year, also known as Nowruz, on March 20, provided the best possible ground for investigating the commonalities between these two nations with thousands years of history and bringing their people even closer still. The initiative to hold the Chinese New Year in Tehran started four years ago, but the first three times were limited to the Embassy only and hosted a few people due to lack of space. This year though, the festivity was held at Niavaran Palace Complex in the northern part of Tehran that with its 9000-square-meter area, tall trees and fresh grass, nice weather and breathtaking scenery, provided a suitable location for actual New Year activities and with even more people – Iranian and Chinese – in attendance.

The activities that followed were a mixture of traditional Chinese Spring Festival and the Iranian Nowruz. There were Chinese performances with Iranian characteristics and also Iranian performers who sang Chinese songs or played Chinese instruments for creating Iranian music. A troupe called ‘Red Dragon’ consisted of Iranian performers brought to stage the traditional lion dance seen at Chinese New Year and thought to bring good luck. A Chinese male performer displayed for the audience a kind of traditional opera called ‘face-changing’ (or ‘Bian Lian’ in Chinese), moving to quick, dramatic music while wearing a brightly colored costume and masks that changed from one face to another almost instantaneously with a movement of his head. Following that performance, a Chinese musician played a piece of music called ‘Animals Happiness’ on a traditional string instrument.

Beside these programs, some booths were offering Chinese cuisine with the profits going to charity. There were also Chinese artists presenting their handicrafts for sell, which although a little overpriced for an average budget, were nevertheless truly beautiful and unique.