TEHRAN – Ferdowsi and Persian Language Commemoration Day will be celebrated in Iran in a series of programs designed by different organizations on Sunday. 

A major part of the programs has been arranged by the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and the Academy of Persian Language and Literature.

Bells will ring at schools across the country for “Persian Language Period”, during which time teachers will discuss issues concerning the Persian language, Academy of Persian Language and Literature director Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel said in a press conference last week.     

The schools will also host performances of naqqali, a dramatic style of storytelling dedicated to stories from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh and other epic Persian stories.

Groups of schoolchildren will visit the tomb of Ferdowsi in Tus and perform songs at the site, which is also home to the graves of several Iranian luminaries, including vocalists Mohammadreza Shajarian and poet Mehdi Akhavan-Saless.

Drawing contests and sports competitions will also be organized at some schools.

The northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad will host a seminar on the Shahnameh, which will be held by the Mashhad Department of Culture and Islamic Guidance and Saraye Kherad Institute.

A helicopter will fly over the town of Tus on Sunday, casting flowers on the tomb of Ferdowsi. A Spanish edition and a French translation of the Shahnameh will be unveiled during a special ceremony. 

In addition, rare copies of the Persian epic masterpiece will be showcased in an exhibition at the Astan-e Qods Razavi Museum and Library in Mashhad.

The Iranian cultural offices in over 40 countries are scheduled to organize programs to celebrate Ferdowsi and Persian Language Commemoration Day.

The Art Bureau of the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization also plans to observe the occasion by organizing a variety of programs.

Literati will have been invited to come together in a meeting at the Sureh Hall of the bureau on Sunday, which will commence at 5 pm with a duet by singers Amir-Hossein Samiei from Iran and Aref Jafari from Afghanistan.

The meeting will continue with speeches by several Persian language experts and a comedy performance.

The Abolfazl Aali Gallery of the bureau is also hosting an exhibition of cartoons by Ali Paknahad and calligraphy works by Safar Nurzad.

Paknahad is showcasing his cartoons on Ferdowsi and other Persian poets such as Sadi and Hafez, while Nurzad is hanging his latest works featuring poems from these poets.

Photo: Tomb of Ferdowsi, Tus.

MMS/YAW