TEHRAN – Entry will be free to the mausoleum of Ferdowsi, the illustrious Persian poet, in Tus, Khorasan Razavi province, on May 15.

On the occasion of the Naltional Ferdowsi Day, vast variety of programs have been arranged throughout the province to commemorate Ferdowsi, IRNA quoted Mohammad Reza Kargar, an official with the Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Organization as saying on Saturday.

“Entry to Ferdowsi mausoleum will be free of charge for everyone on May 15,” he said.

To commemorate the day, various meetings, workshops, exhibits, and live performances such as Naqqali, which is a style of storytelling dedicated to Shahnameh epic stories, will be held nationwide.

Many Iranians regard Ferdowsi as the greatest of their poets. Down through the centuries they have continued to read and to listen to recitations from his masterwork, the Shahnameh.

Though written some a millennia ago, the poem collection is somehow intelligible to the average modern Iranians, to them it is the history of their country’s glorious past, preserved for all time in sonorous and majestic verses.

PHOTO: A view of Ferdowsi mausoleum in Tus, northeastern Iran, with a massive statue of the Persian poet in the foreground

AFM/MG