By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL, Afghanistan 

Under the watchful eyes of the country's security forces, Afghans on Friday welcomed in Newroz, the festival to mark the Persian New Year. 

The ancient annual celebration, which falls on Saturday this year, is a hallmark in Central Asia and parts of Western Asia. 

For the first time Afghan forces are in charge of protecting the celebrations, after more than a decade of foreign armed forces stationed on Afghan soil. 

On Friday, families and groups of youth flocked to Kabul's majestic Paghman Palace, a 19th century construction renovated last year specifically to allow for Newroz celebrations to be held on its hillside, with its expansive picturesque view of the snow-capped mountains, terraced farms and scattered homes.

“I wish Afghans a peaceful and prosperous year ahead, everyday full with success and everyday like the Newroz,” said Ahmad Zia Masoud the Special Presidential Envoy for Good Governance, while launching the celebrations.

Young Afghan boys and girls dressed in traditional attire greeted Masoud and other dignitaries in the Afghan tradition, by presenting them with wheat branches and other natural products that symbolize life.

Colorful kites blotted the sky as excited youth hurled themselves into the traditional "Attan" and "Qarsak" dances and musicians with huge drums and flutes played for the crowds. 

Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the National Directorate for Security, and the police deployed officers on all roads leading to the Paghman Palace, as well as at other recreational spots in Kabul.

It was on the same day last year when four gunmen stormed the capital’s luxurious Sareena hotel and killed nine civilians on the spot. Among them was local journalist Sardar Ahmad, his wife, his children and four foreigners who had gathered there on the eve of the celebrations.

Though no major terrorist attack has taken place in Kabul in the past month, the trauma of suicide attacks and armed assaults haunt public gatherings. 

However, Hamdard Ghafoori, a local youth activist, expressed optimism.

“I am very hopeful for the future and am actually confident with our own Afghan brothers taking the responsibility of security this year onwards,” he said.

With the timing of Newroz coinciding with spring, Afghans use it as a time to celebrate nature and so, alongside the partying, there is a nationwide program of tree planting. 

The Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah, who power-shares with President Ashraf Ghani, said while planting a sapling in the diplomatic district of Wazir Akbar Khan that trees were central to efforts at creating more green areas and keeping the environment clean.

“Plantation has been an old tradition in our country, but in the situation we are in today, planting trees, particularly in Kabul, has become an imperative,” said Abdullah.

The Kabul government aims to plant some 32 million saplings across the country as part of an ongoing drive.

The Afghan capital, once known as a city of gardens, lost much of its green cover to the raging violence between militant factions in the 1990s. 

Later, during the Taliban rule, Newroz remained limited while their regime was occupied with fighting various resistance forces in the north of the country.

Traditionally, the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif is considered to be the centre of “Newroz” celebrations but as Basser Hamidi, one of the organizers in Kabul -- where it was dubbed the "Day of United Hearts" -- the capital is catching up.

Hamidi said it was vital for all Afghans to have a vibrant capital that celebrates important national occasions with warmth and in line with the Afghan tradition.

“Like all the Asian countries, India, the Americans and Germany, we want to celebrate our culture and important days,” he remarked.