Festipath
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The lit shrine at Mazar-i-Sharif at night with a vast crowd filling the park around it

Gul-e Surkh

میلهٔ گل سرخ

Photo: Peretz Partensky, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Red Flower festival at Mazar-i-Sharif ran through the first forty days of the year, while the tulips were out on the plains around the city. The banner-raising at the shrine drew up to two hundred thousand people — the largest Nowruz gathering recorded anywhere.

Forty days of tulips

Gul-e surkh means red flower, and the flower is the wild tulip. The festival is celebrated at Mazar-i-Sharif through the first forty days of the year — from Nowruz at the March equinox — which is the span in which the tulips come up on the green plains and the hills around the city. It is the principal Nowruz festival of Afghanistan, and it is a season rather than a day.

The banner

The ceremony at the centre of it is Jahenda Bala, the raising of the banner. It is a religious ceremony performed at particular mosques, and the banner raised is a special one whose arrangement of colours resembles the Derafsh Kaviani, the standard of the Sasanian kings.

The one at Mazar-i-Sharif is the largest. Up to two hundred thousand people, from all over the country, have gathered in the central park around the Blue Mosque for it — the biggest recorded Nowruz gathering anywhere.

Two other things belong to the same days. A buzkashi tournament is held during the festival, at Mazar-i-Sharif and elsewhere. And on the first day of the year comes Jashn-e Dehqan, the farmers' day, when farmers walk through the cities as a show of support for the year's production.

Since 2021

After the Taliban took power in 2021, Nowruz was removed from the list of official holidays. The government's spokesman has said it will not be marked officially with state-organised events, but that people "will not be prevented" from marking it privately.

The rest of the picture matters for what a festival can now be. Music is outlawed. Women are banned from public parks and leisure facilities, and a law published in 2024 holds that women's voices should not be heard in public. Residents quoted in 2025 said that all the fun and enthusiasm of Nowruz had gone, and that the cost of the traditional foods had put them out of reach of families already struggling.

The tulips still come up on the hills. What is described above is what the festival has been; how much of it happens in a given year is not something this page can tell you.

When it happens

The first forty days of the Afghan year, beginning at Nowruz on the March equinox. Since 2021 there are no state-organised events; what happens is what people do themselves.

  • March 21 – April 29, 2027Farvardin 1, 1406 APCalculated
  • March 20 – April 28, 2028Farvardin 1, 1407 APCalculated
  • March 20 – April 28, 2029Farvardin 1, 1408 APCalculated
  • March 21 – April 29, 2030Farvardin 1, 1409 APCalculated

Visiting with respect

Good to know

  • Music is outlawed. Do not assume a gathering will sound like the recordings of earlier years.
  • Women are banned from public parks and leisure facilities, and a 2024 law holds that women's voices should not be heard in public.
  • Photographing government buildings, military installations and checkpoints is not allowed and may lead to detention. Ask before photographing people.

Avoid

  • Do not travel. The UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office advises against all travel to Afghanistan and warns of a significant risk of detention.
Mazar-i-Sharif at Nowruz, the blue domes of the shrine among the trees and kites flying over the city
Mazar-i-Sharif at Nowruz, the blue domes of the shrine among the trees and kites flying over the city · Photo: Peretz Partensky, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
White doves rising in front of the shrine at Mazar-i-Sharif while a man scatters feed among them
White doves rising in front of the shrine at Mazar-i-Sharif while a man scatters feed among them · Photo: Peretz Partensky, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sources

This entry was written from the following sources.

  1. Nowruz in AfghanistanWikipedia · read September 29, 2026
  2. Afghans No Longer Celebrate Nowruz Amid Poverty, Taliban RestrictionsRadio Free Europe / Radio Liberty · read September 29, 2026
  3. Afghanistan travel advice: safety and securityUK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office · read September 29, 2026

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