Naw-Rúz

The story behind the day

Naw-Rúz, a name that means “new day,” is the Bahá'í New Year and the opening day of the Badíʿ calendar's first month. It falls on the day of the March equinox, usually 21 March, and it closes the nineteen days of fasting that come just before it. Bahá'ís keep it as one of nine holy days on which work is suspended. It shares its name and its season with the old Iranian spring festival of Nowruz, which many people who are not Bahá'ís also keep.^[1–7]

Origins

The festival is older than the Bahá'í Faith. Iranian Nowruz greets the first day of spring, and the United Nations traces its roots back more than three thousand years, to the era of Zoroastrianism. The Bahá'í observance rests on a calendar that Bahá'ís say was introduced by the Báb, the forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh. A scholarly encyclopedia notes that Bahá'ís took over from the Bábís the pattern of nineteen months of nineteen days, with a few intercalary days added so that the year keeps pace with the sun. Four are added in most years and five in a leap year. The New Year festival sits at the spring equinox.^[8–12]

What it marks

For Bahá'ís, Naw-Rúz opens the year and releases the believer from the Fast. During the nineteen days beforehand, adult Bahá'ís go without food and drink from sunrise to sunset, a discipline the community describes as a time of prayer, meditation and spiritual renewal. Its stated purpose is to loosen the hold of material concerns and turn attention to the spiritual life. Because the Bahá'í calendar follows the sun, the festival tracks the equinox rather than a date fixed in advance.^{[2, 4, 12–15]}

How it is kept

a feast at a Bahá'í centre, spring flowers — A feast at a Bahá'í centre, spring flowersIllustration · AI-generated

Bahá'í law treats Naw-Rúz as a holy day on which work is suspended. Local communities gather to mark it, and the programmes typically combine prayer and celebration with a festive meal. The day comes straight after the discipline of the fast that has just ended.^{[4–5, 16]}

Across traditions

Nowruz is a shared spring festival, and Bahá'ís are one of many communities who keep it. Members of all of Iran's religious groups celebrate it, and the United Nations notes that people of various religious and cultural backgrounds observe it across Iran, Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Balkans. The Iranian festival begins at the vernal equinox, most often on 20 or 21 March. What distinguishes the Bahá'í Naw-Rúz is its place in Bahá'í law: it is a holy day of the faith, bound to the fast that precedes it and to the calendar the Báb introduced, as well as a seasonal custom.^{[4–5, 7, 10, 17–18]}

Sources

Each statement above was checked against published sources; the verdict says whether it stood as written, was corrected or was hedged.