Sultan Nevruz – March 22: Spring Festival & Holiday of the Bektashi

When the sun stands exactly above the equator on March 22, when day and night briefly hold each other in balance and the first warm winds sweep across the plains and mountains of the Balkans, a new year of life begins for millions of people. Sultan Nevruz is the name this day bears in Albania and throughout the worldwide Albanian diaspora – a festival of spring, of new beginnings and of hope, deeply rooted in the tradition of the Bektashi community. For many families in Tirana and Prishtina, but also in Frankfurt, Zurich or Vienna, March 22 is far more than a date on the calendar: it is a day on which nature and faith, history and present, joy and reflection come together in a festival all its own.

In this in-depth article we explain what Sultan Nevruz exactly is, where the festival comes from, why it plays such a special role in Albania in particular and how it is still celebrated today. We take a respectful look at the Bektashi and their world centre in Tirana, place the holiday within the rich landscape of Albanian holidays and show how the magic of spring can be brought home a little, even far from one's homeland. One thing remains important throughout: we write with respect for all faiths and traditions, for Albania is a country where religious diversity has been lived for centuries.

What is Sultan Nevruz? A clear definition

Sultan Nevruz is the Albanian spring festival on March 22 that marks the astronomical beginning of spring and the start of a new year and is celebrated in Albania above all by the Bektashi community. The name is made up of two parts: "Nevruz" is the Albanian form of the Persian word Nowruz, which literally means "new day". The addition of "Sultan" gives the festival a special, spiritual dignity in the Bektashi tradition and points to the religious significance of the day.

While Nowruz is celebrated worldwide as the New Year and spring festival of numerous peoples – from the Balkans through Turkey and Iran all the way to Central Asia – the term Sultan Nevruz has become established in Albania. It underlines that here the day is not only a festival of nature but also holds a firm place in the spiritual calendar of the Bektashi. In this tradition, March 22 is regarded as a particularly blessed day – a moment when the world is reborn and people's hearts open.

For people of Albanian heritage, Sultan Nevruz is thus a double gift: an ancient, people-uniting spring festival and at the same time a spiritual holiday that makes their own cultural and religious identity visible. Especially in the diaspora, where the connection to the homeland is often kept alive through such festivals, the day takes on great emotional significance.

March 22: The beginning of spring and a new start

March 22 – sometimes the astronomical beginning of spring also falls on March 20 or 21 – is the day of the equinox, the spring equinox. At this point in the course of the year, day and night are almost equal in length, and from now on the days grow longer again. For people of earlier centuries, whose lives were inextricably bound to nature, to farming and animal husbandry, this moment was of the greatest importance: winter had been survived, the earth was awakening, sowing could begin.

Out of this deep sense of nature arose the idea of the new beginning that lies at the heart of Nevruz. Spring is understood not only as a season but as a symbol of renewal, purification and hope. Old quarrels should be settled, debts paid off where possible and homes thoroughly cleaned. One meets the new year with a pure heart and a tidy home. This symbolism of the fresh and the pure runs through all Nevruz customs and makes the day a festival of positive resolutions – not unlike what many people associate with the turn of the year in January.

The colours of spring – the bright green of the first buds, the white of the almond blossom, the strong red of the poppies – recur in many festive tables and decorations. Green wheat, fresh herbs and colourful flowers adorn the houses and remind us that life is stronger than winter. Anyone who experiences March 22 in the Albanian mountains, where the snow-covered peaks slowly bare themselves and the valleys are bathed in a lush green, immediately understands why this day has been celebrated for thousands of years.

Nowruz – an ancient festival across borders

To truly understand Sultan Nevruz, it is worth taking a look at the long history of Nowruz. The roots of this festival reach back more than 3,000 years and lie in ancient Persia, where it was closely connected with the Zoroastrian worldview. There, Nowruz marked the beginning of the year and was celebrated as the victory of light over darkness, of good over evil. From this place of origin, the festival spread across a vast geographical area through trade routes and cultural exchange.

Today, Nowruz is observed by an estimated 300 million people worldwide. UNESCO has officially recognised International Nowruz Day on March 21 and added the festival to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It is celebrated, among other places, in Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Central Asia, the Caucasus and, indeed, in the Balkans. However different the languages and faiths of the celebrating peoples may be, the basic idea remains the same everywhere: spring as a time of new beginnings.

The festival reached the Balkans above all through the Ottoman period and through the Sufi orders, which conveyed Islam in a mystical, tolerant and popular form. For the Albanian-speaking population, Nevruz never became a foreign import but merged with the region's already existing spring and nature festivals. Thus arose that particular Albanian character expressed in the name Sultan Nevruz and in the central role of the Bektashi.

The Bektashi and Albania: the world centre in Tirana

The Bektashi are a mystical Islamic order close to Sufism, known for its tolerance, its humanistic orientation and its close connection to Albanian culture. In Albania the Bektashi hold a unique position: nowhere else in the world are they as strongly anchored and publicly present as here. After the order was expelled from Turkey in the 1920s, Tirana became the world centre of the Bektashi – the so-called Kryegjyshata Botërore Bektashiane, the spiritual headquarters of the order.

This world centre, led by the head of the Bektashi, the Dedebaba (also called Kryegjysh), remains to this day the spiritual heart of the community. It makes Albania one of the most important places of the Bektashi faith anywhere. For many Albanians the order is an essential part of their cultural identity – not only as a religious institution but also as a keeper of customs, poetry, music and hospitality.

The Bektashi are distinguished by a particularly open and tolerant attitude. Women and men pray together, wine is not forbidden in certain ceremonies, and the strict outward ritualism of other currents recedes in favour of an inner, heart-centred spirituality. This openness has made the order a bridge-builder between faiths over the centuries. Precisely in Albania, where Muslims of different orientations and Orthodox and Catholic Christians have always lived side by side, the Bektashi embody an ideal of peaceful coexistence.

For the spring festival this means: in Albania, Sultan Nevruz is closely tied to the Bektashi without being exclusively religious. The day combines the order's spiritual celebration with a popular spring festival in which people of the most varied backgrounds can take part. This union of faith and community makes March 22 one of the most atmospheric days in the Albanian festive calendar.

Why "Sultan" Nevruz? Ali and the Bektashi tradition

The addition of "Sultan" in the name of the festival has a deep spiritual background. In the Bektashi tradition, March 22 is at the same time regarded as the day on which Ali ibn Abi Talib – the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad – was born. Ali holds an outstanding position in Bektashi spirituality; he is revered as a model of wisdom, bravery and justice. That his birthday coincides with the beginning of spring gives the day an additional layer of meaning: the new beginning of nature and the birth of a revered figure flow together into one festival.

This explains the honorific title "Sultan" – it expresses the special dignity and holiness attributed to the day in the Bektashi tradition. Nevruz is thus not merely a calendar event but a spiritual highlight of the year. In the tekkes – the assembly houses and monasteries of the Bektashi – special ceremonies, prayers and communal meals take place on this day. The faithful come together to pray, to hear stories and poems and to celebrate the bond of the community.

It is important to place this religious core respectfully: for the Bektashi, Sultan Nevruz is a day of deep spiritual significance. At the same time, the festival is open to all who wish to celebrate spring and the values of renewal, peace and community. It is precisely this dual nature – sacred and popular at once – that makes Sultan Nevruz so unique.

How Sultan Nevruz is celebrated – customs and symbols

The customs surrounding Sultan Nevruz are diverse and vary from region to region, from family to family. Yet some elements recur again and again and give the festival its unmistakable character. Almost everywhere, the shared meal is at the centre: families come together and the tables groan under regional specialities. Sweet dishes play a special role here, for they symbolise the sweetness of new life and the hope for a good year.

A central symbol of many Nevruz celebrations is the sprouted wheat or the fresh green shoots that stand in bowls on the tables. They represent fertility, growth and the awakening of nature. In some families colourful eggs are dyed – a custom that shows the kinship of spring festivals across religious boundaries and that also recalls Easter traditions. Elsewhere sweets and nuts are handed out, especially to children who are allowed to go from house to house.

Fire, too, plays a role in many Nowruz traditions. In some areas small bonfires are lit, over which people jump to symbolically cleanse themselves of the worries and misfortune of the old year. Fire stands for light, warmth and the cleansing power that finally drives out winter. Around the fire people sing, dance and laugh – the traditional music with Çifteli, Def and flute is an inseparable part of it.

In the tekkes of the Bektashi the day takes on a more contemplative note. Here prayer, the communal meal and the recitation of poems and spiritual texts take centre stage. The faithful renew their commitment to the values of the order: tolerance, charity, self-reflection and the path of inner perfection. Thus Sultan Nevruz combines the exuberant joy of the folk festival with the quiet depth of spiritual contemplation.

Another lovely custom is visiting family and neighbours. People wish one another a good new year, reconcile where there was conflict and strengthen the bonds of community. In a time when many families live scattered across national borders, it is precisely such festivals that keep togetherness alive. A call to the homeland, a video chat with the grandparents, a lovingly set table – in this way Nevruz becomes a moment of connection even far away.

Albania – a land of religious diversity and harmony

Hardly any aspect of Albania impresses visitors as much as the natural coexistence of religions. In hardly any other country in Europe do Muslims, Orthodox and Catholic Christians and the Bektashi live together so peacefully and respectfully. It is not uncommon for different faiths to be represented within one family, for people to celebrate both Bajram and Christmas or indeed Sultan Nevruz together. The Albanian national poet Pashko Vasa put it in a nutshell in the 19th century in a famous verse: "The faith of the Albanians is Albanianism" – an affirmation that shared culture and language bind more strongly than confessional differences divide.

This lived harmony is no coincidence but the result of a long history of coexistence. Festivals like Sultan Nevruz or the summer festival Dita e Verës have long been observed not only by one religious group but have become society-wide occasions in which people take part regardless of their faith. The beginning of spring belongs to everyone – the farmer as much as the believer, the child as much as the elder, the person in Tirana as much as the emigrant in Germany.

For the Albanian diaspora in the German-speaking world, this tradition of tolerance is a valuable heritage. It shows that cultural identity and openness to the world need not be a contradiction. Whoever tells their children about Sultan Nevruz passes on not only a piece of homeland history but also the message that diversity is a strength. In this sense, March 22 is far more than a spring festival – it is a lived commitment to peace, respect and community.

Sultan Nevruz and Dita e Verës – two Albanian spring festivals

Anyone who looks into the Albanian holidays quickly comes across a second great spring festival that falls just a few days earlier: Dita e Verës, the "Day of Summer", which is celebrated on March 14. Both festivals celebrate the awakening of nature and the victory of spring over winter, and both are deeply rooted in Albanian culture. Nevertheless, they are two independent traditions with different roots.

Dita e Verës is an ancient, originally pagan nature festival that has its traditional centre especially in the city of Elbasan and is today observed throughout Albania as an official holiday. Sultan Nevruz, on the other hand, is, as described, closely connected with the Bektashi tradition and the Persian Nowruz heritage and falls on the astronomical beginning of spring on March 22. Both festivals complement each other and show how rich the Albanian festive calendar is in spring. If you would like to learn more about the sister festival, read our detailed article on Dita e Verës, the Albanian spring festival on March 14.

And anyone looking for a comprehensive overview of all important festivals and days of remembrance – from Independence Day through the religious festivals to the national holidays – will find helpful guidance in our large overview of Albanian and Kosovar holidays. In this way Sultan Nevruz can be placed in the larger context of the Albanian year and appreciated in its full significance.

Spring at home: music, dance and colours

Sultan Nevruz is a festival for all the senses. The scent of fresh herbs and sweet dishes, the bright colours of spring, but above all the music and the dance make the day an unforgettable experience. No Albanian festival is complete without the typical sounds: the Çifteli, a two-stringed plucked instrument, sets the beat with its bright, distinctive tone, while the Def (also called Dahire), a frame drum, carries the rhythm. Joining them are the Fyell flutes and the deep, solemn sounds of the Lahuta in epic songs.

In the dance a special prop plays a central role: the Shamija e kuqe, the red dance scarf. It is swung in the traditional round dances, the Valle, and gives the choreography its characteristic elegance and liveliness. The bright red – the colour of the Albanian flag – stands for strength, life and joy and fits perfectly with the festive character of Nevruz. Anyone who has ever experienced the dances live knows how much these small scarves become the heart of the celebration.

Festive clothing, too, is part of a successful Nevruz festival. The traditional Albanian costume – the Veshja Kombëtare – with its artfully embroidered waistcoats, white shirts and characteristic headdresses turns every festival into a colourful spectacle. In the diaspora it is a lovely gesture to wear at least one element of the costume on special occasions and thus make the connection to the homeland visible. Whether an embroidered waistcoat, a dance scarf or a traditional instrument – such pieces carry a piece of the Albanian soul within them and are often passed down over generations.

For families in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Sultan Nevruz is a wonderful opportunity to bring their own culture closer to their children. A shared spring meal, a few traditional songs, learning a simple dance or telling the story of Nevruz – all of this creates memories that last a lifetime. Festivals are the cultural memory of a people, and whoever nurtures them keeps the connection to the homeland alive, even when many hundreds of kilometres lie between one's home and the Albanian mountains.

Sultan Nevruz in the Albanian diaspora

In recent decades, hundreds of thousands of Albanians have found a new home in the German-speaking world. Their festivals have travelled with them. Today Sultan Nevruz is celebrated not only in Tirana, Prishtina or Elbasan but equally in the living rooms and community centres of Berlin, Munich, Vienna and Zurich. In doing so, the diaspora has developed its own forms of celebration – often a mixture of inherited customs and new traditions adapted to life abroad.

Cultural associations play an important role: they organise festivals, dance evenings and shared meals at which the young generation gets to know the traditions of their parents and grandparents. Especially for children growing up in the German-speaking world, such occasions are of inestimable value. They experience that their origin is something beautiful and festive, that Albanian culture is rich, diverse and alive. And along the way they learn the values behind Nevruz: new beginnings, reconciliation, community and respect for nature.

Cooking together, too, is one of the loveliest diaspora traditions surrounding Sultan Nevruz. Recipes are passed on from generation to generation, grandmothers show their grandchildren how the sweet festive dishes succeed, and the whole family helps out. Thus a single holiday becomes a connecting ritual that strengthens togetherness. Anyone who wants to shape the day with a few additional cultural details – for example with traditional music, festive decoration in the spring colours or a small dance with the red scarf – creates an atmosphere in which old and young feel equally at ease.

Frequently asked questions about Sultan Nevruz (FAQ)

When is Sultan Nevruz? Sultan Nevruz is celebrated on March 22 and marks the astronomical beginning of spring and the start of a new year. In some years the beginning of spring falls on March 20 or 21 by the calendar, but in the Albanian tradition March 22 is the fixed date of the festival.

What does the name Sultan Nevruz mean? "Nevruz" is the Albanian form of the Persian word "Nowruz" and means "new day". The addition of "Sultan" points to the special spiritual dignity of the day in the Bektashi tradition, in which March 22 is at the same time revered as Ali's birthday.

Who celebrates Sultan Nevruz in Albania? Sultan Nevruz is celebrated in Albania above all by the Bektashi community, whose world centre is located in Tirana. Beyond that, the festival has become a popular spring festival in which people of different backgrounds take part.

What is the difference between Sultan Nevruz and Dita e Verës? Dita e Verës on March 14 is an originally pagan nature festival centred in Elbasan, while Sultan Nevruz on March 22 goes back to the Persian Nowruz and is closely connected with the Bektashi tradition. Both celebrate spring but have different roots.

How can one celebrate Sultan Nevruz in the diaspora? In the diaspora, Sultan Nevruz is celebrated with a shared spring meal, traditional music with Çifteli and Def, dances with the red scarf Shamija e kuqe and the telling of the story of the festival. In this way the connection to the homeland and to one's own culture is kept alive.

Conclusion: a festival of hope and connection

Sultan Nevruz on March 22 is far more than a date on the calendar. It is a festival that celebrates the eternal cycle of nature, that opens people's hearts and that connects the Albanian community across all borders. In the interplay of the beginning of spring, Bektashi tradition and popular joy, a unique holiday emerges that tells of new beginnings, reconciliation and hope. It shows Albania at its most beautiful: as a land of religious diversity, lived tolerance and deep cultural roots.

Whether in Tirana or in the distance of the diaspora – whoever celebrates Sultan Nevruz keeps a valuable heritage alive and passes it on to the next generation. The music, the dance, the colours and the shared meals create moments that connect and give strength for the coming year. In this spirit we wish everyone a happy festival: Gëzuar Sulltan Nevruzin!