TEHRAN -- Shiraz is getting ready to play host to this year’s commemoration ceremony for Sadi.

The director of the Center for the Study of Sadi, Kurosh Kamali Sarvestani, gave details about the program that will take place in Shiraz on April 21, Sadi National Day.
“As with previous editions, there will be an opening ceremony on the eve of Sadi National Day (April 20) at his tomb accompanied by a live music concert with the Raz-o-Niaz band and vocalist Salar Aqili,” he said.
He noted that each year specific aspects of the poet are chosen for discussion, and this year the focus will be on his Bustan (The Orchard).
Several lectures on Bustan by scholars Gholam-Hossein Ebrahimi Dinani, Asghar Dadbeh, and Saeid Hamidian are also arranged for the first day on April 21.
“Sadi in his Bustan depicts a world in which love, justice, modesty and satisfaction are adored and where there is no room for oppression, ugliness or indecency. It is an ideal world that prominent figures and artists have long tried to create,” Kamali Sarvestani added.
The Center for the Study of Sadi in collaboration with Tehran’s Book City will also be starting sessions on Sadi opening on April 22 and continuing for more than a year once every week.
Articles written on Sadi in the past decades do not number more than 1000 papers and books published not over 200 titles, so to compile an encyclopedia on Sadi is indeed a great need, he explained.
“It has been years since various encyclopedias have been complied on the subject of world-renowned poets and writers, and likewise, our Persian masters and poets are in need of having their own independent encyclopedias,” he concluded.
The ceremony is cosponsored by Fars Governor General Office, Fars department of Culture and Islamic Guidance, and Fars cultural heritage and tourism office.