← National days · Turkmenistan
March 21· Holiday
National Spring Festival (Nowruz)
In Turkmenistan Nowruz is celebrated on 21–22 March as the National Spring Festival, with days off, semeni, folk games, horse races and festive tables.
In Turkmenistan Nowruz is called the National Spring Festival, and 21–22 March are public holidays by law. For Turkmens Nowruz is the festival of nature's awakening, the start of the sowing season and reconciliation.
Families grow semeni, cook sumelek and prepare festive dishes in great cauldrons. Villages hold horse races, wrestling and folk games such as gyz gachdy, and elders are visited. In 2016 Turkmenistan joined the multinational UNESCO inscription of Nowruz as intangible heritage.
The holiday
Festive grounds are set up in Ashgabat and the regional centres, with craft exhibitions, concerts and displays by Akhal-Teke horses.
Video
Photos
Turkmen girls greeting guests with bread · Amustard / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 
Nowruz, a festival shared by many peoples · Michel Ravassard / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 igo 
Teke Turkmens in front of a yurt · Garagoz88 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 
Baking bread in a tandyr · Kalpak Travel / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 
A parade of Akhal-Teke horses on the racetrack · Ulruppelt / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 
A Turkmen meal · SafetyNoodle / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Turkmenistan: other days
- January 1New Year's Day
- January 27Defenders of the Fatherland Day
- March 8International Women's Day
- AprilTurkmen Horse Day
- May 9Victory Day
- May 18Constitution and State Flag Day
- May 25Ashgabat City Day
- MayTurkmen Carpet Day
- June 27Day of Culture Workers and Magtymguly Pyragy's Poetry
- September 27Independence Day
- October 3Founding of the Organization of Turkic States
- October 6Remembrance Day (1948 earthquake)
- NovemberHarvest Day
- December 12Neutrality Day
- December 21Memorial Day of the First President S. A. Niyazov
- 10 Dhu al-Hijjah in the Islamic calendar — the feast of the Hajj pilgrimage; moves about 11 days earlier each yearEid al-Adha
- 1 Shawwal in the Islamic calendar — the end of the Ramadan fast; moves about 11 days earlier each yearEid al-Fitr