Nowruz

The story behind the day

Nowruz, "new day", is the Iranian New Year, kept at the spring equinox. In the Iranian solar calendar it is the first day of Farvardin. Many peoples across Central and West Asia and the Caucasus keep it, and it is not confined to one religion. For Zoroastrians it is the focal point of the festal year and one of their feasts of obligation. Zoroastrians also follow older calendars that date their own New Year differently: the Fasli reckoning keeps the equinox, while the Shenshai New Year has drifted into August and the Kadmi one sits a month away from it.^[1–9]

Origins

tribute procession at Persepolis — Tribute procession at PersepolisIllustration · AI-generated

The name means "new day", and the festival celebrates the arrival of spring. Persian tradition ties its founding to Jamshid, the mythical king, and a medieval fragment of an Iranian world history says that when order was restored the people held a celebration and named it Nowruz. Zoroastrians celebrate it at the spring equinox, and the faith counts Nowruz, with the six seasonal gahambar feasts, among its seven high feasts of obligation.^{[1, 3, 10, 12]}

What it marks

Nowruz marks the renewal of nature after winter. In the Iranian calendar the year opens on the first of Farvardin, at the spring equinox, so the day is both a calendar date and an astronomical moment. For Zoroastrians it is also the day of fire, the most joyous of their festivals. By their tradition the spirit of noon, Rapithwin, withdraws underground in winter and returns at noon on Nowruz, to be welcomed with a service of blessing and thanksgiving.^{[2, 13–14]}

How it came to be

Because calendars drift, rulers have tried to hold the festival to the equinox: a reform under the Seljuk ruler Malikshah in the 1070s, in which the poet Omar Khayyam took part, fixed Nowruz to it. The festival continued to be kept after the coming of Islam and, stripped of its Zoroastrian connotations, became a celebration that belongs to no single religious group. UNESCO lists it as shared heritage of many countries, and the Smithsonian describes it as kept from West Asia and the Caucasus to Central and South Asia.^{[4–5, 15]}

How it is kept

haft-sin table — Haft-sin tableIllustration · AI-generated

At the table stands the haft-sin, a spread of seven items whose Persian names begin with the letter s. Sabzeh, sprouts grown in a dish, stands for rebirth. In Iran the celebrations run twelve or thirteen days, and UNESCO describes festivities of around two weeks in the places that keep the feast, with rituals, traditional games, special dishes and performances.^{[11, 16]}

Across traditions

Parsi fire-temple visit in MumbaiIllustration · AI-generated

Zoroastrians today follow three calendars. The Shenshai calendar, followed by most Parsis, has its New Year in August now. A dispute over the calendar in the eighteenth century led to the Kadmi reckoning, which differs from Shenshai by one month. The Fasli calendar, devised in 1906, restores the New Year to the spring equinox. The Iranian civil calendar also begins on the equinox.^{[2, 6–9, 17]}

Sources

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