National Museum of Asian Art Announces Its 2025 Nowruz Family Festival

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art will celebrate its 2025 Nowruz family festival Sunday, March 16, 11 a.m.–4 p.m. Named for the Persian word for “new day,” Nowruz marks the vernal equinox and the first day of spring. The festival is free and open to the public.

This year’s Nowruz festival will include free attractions for all ages, including storytelling, hands-on activities, music performances and more. Traditional haftseen tables displaying at least seven (haft) items that refer to new life and renewal, each beginning with the letter “s” (pronounced seen in Persian), will be in the north corridor of the museum’s West Building (Freer Gallery of Art) and in the B3 lobby and gallery 30 of the East Building (Arthur M. Sackler Gallery). Food will be available for purchase from onsite vendors. A full list of activities is available online. The museum also offers many digital resources on Nowruz, including arts and crafts activities, podcasts and webinars.

Nowruz is rooted in Zoroastrianism and was celebrated in Iran and much of the ancient Near East as early as 3,000 years ago. Today, people in many regions—from West Asia and the Caucasus to Central and South Asia—participate in the 13 days of Nowruz festivities with their own local variations.

More than 7,000 people attended the National Museum of Asian Art’s Nowruz celebration in March 2024.

The museum’s annual Nowruz festival is made possible by the Jahangir and Eleanor Amuzegar Persian Culture Celebrations Fund.

About the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art  

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art is committed to preserving, exhibiting, researching and interpreting art in ways that deepen our collective understanding of Asia, the United States and the world. Home to more than 46,000 objects, the museum stewards one of North America’s largest and most comprehensive collections of Asian art, with works dating from antiquity to the present from China, Japan, Korea, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Islamic world. Its rich holdings bring the arts of Asia into direct dialogue with an important collection of 19th- and early 20th-century art from the United States, providing an essential platform for creative collaboration and cultural exchange between the U.S., Asia and the Middle East.  

Beginning with a 1906 gift that paved the way for the museum’s opening in 1923, the National Museum of Asian Art is a leading resource for visitors, students and scholars in the United States and internationally. Its galleries, laboratories, archives and library are located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and are part of the world’s largest museum complex, which typically reports more than 27 million visits each year. The museum is free and open to the public 364 days a year (closed Dec. 25), making its exhibitions, programs, learning opportunities and digital initiatives accessible to global audiences.  

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