{"id":232453,"date":"2026-04-02T21:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T21:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/232453\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T21:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T21:58:08","slug":"texas-qazaq-foundation-to-celebrate-nauryz-central-asian-and-persian-new-year-with-festival-performances-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/232453\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Qazaq Foundation to celebrate Nauryz, Central Asian and Persian New Year, with festival, performances \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"Children<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Alva Robinson<\/p>\n

Children perform at an Independence Day Gala hosted by the Texas Qazaq Foundation in December.<\/p>\n

The Texas Qazaq Foundation will host a festival Sunday to celebrate Nauryz, a spring holiday<\/a> marking the start of the new year across Central Asian and Persian cultures.<\/p>\n

Texas is home to roughly 24,000 Kazakhs, according to the World Population Review<\/a>. Houston has the third-largest Kazakh community in the country, according to ZipAtlas<\/a>. Many Kazakhs were drawn to the region because of its oil and gas industry, and higher education opportunities. <\/p>\n

Alash Mendybayev, the foundation’s CEO, said Kazakhstan is known for its harsh winters. A nomadic people, Kazakhs historically did not see each other often during the winter, he said. Nauryz marks the end of this isolating season.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n

“After the winter, they come together, they see each other, after a long time and that’s why we celebrate,” Mendybayev said.<\/p>\n

The festival will be held Sunday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the GSH Event Center in southwest Houston. It will feature performances by several Kazakh musicians, including Sadraddin and Yenlik, who are well-known artists in the country. <\/p>\n

The celebration will also include vendors selling Central Asian food and handmade items.<\/p>\n

Berik Ospan is the foundation’s president. He said the foundation wants to share the culture with the wider community, while also integrating into the United States’ broader culture.<\/p>\n

“We want to become a part of the U.S. culture … (and) bring good values from our country,” he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy of Alva Robinson Children perform at an Independence Day Gala hosted by the Texas Qazaq Foundation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1174,56,58,57,89940,89941,89942,89943],"class_list":{"0":"post-232453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-arts-culture","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-headlines","11":"tag-houston-news","12":"tag-kazakhstan","13":"tag-nauryz","14":"tag-persian-new-year","15":"tag-texas-qazaq-foundation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}