Nowruz – The Beginning of a New Year in the Persian Calender!
As I look out my window this morning, I am hopefully looking at the last gasp of winter! Three to five inches of snow is supposed to fall today, and be gone tomorrow, when temperatures climb into the 50s! I read this morning that today Iranians and other countries in areas surrounding Iran are celebrating Nowruz. Since I had no idea what Nowruz was I needed to find out!
What I found out was that Nowruz in Persian means “The New Day” and is the name of the Iranian’Persian New Year!
From Wikipedia:
Nowruz marks the first day of spring or Equinox” and the beginning of the year in the Persian calendar. It is celebrated on the day of the astronomical Northward equinox, which usually occurs on March 21 or the previous/following day depending on where it is observed. The moment the sun crosses the celestial equator and equalizes night and day is calculated exactly every year and families gather together to observe the rituals.
Nowruz is celebrated by people from diverse ethnic communities and religious backgrounds for thousands of years. It is a secular holiday for most celebrants that is enjoyed by people of several different faiths, but remains a holy day for Zoroastrians. It originated in Persia in one of the capitals of the Achaemenid empire in Persis (Fars) in Iran and is also celebrated by the cultural region that came under Iranian influence or had migrations by Persians including Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, the North Caucasus, the Kurdish areas in the Middle East,[21] Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and other scattered populations in Central and South Asia.
Makes perfect sense to me!! Now the question that arose in my head was: Why is January 1st the first day of our new year?? From Wikipedia….
The Romans dedicated New Year’s Day to Janus, the pagan god of gates, doors, and beginnings, for whom the first month of the year, January, is also named. The pagan deity Janus was depicted as having two faces: one looking forward and the other backward, suggesting that celebrations of the new year are pagan traditions. Some suggested this occurred in 153 BC, when it was stipulated that the two annual consuls, after whose names the Romans identified the years, acceded to office on that day, though there is no consensus on the question.[5] After Julius Caesar reformed the calendar in 46 BC as the Julian Calendar and was subsequently murdered, the Roman Senate voted to deify him on 1 January 42 BC
In Christendom, under which the Gregorian Calendar developed, New Year’s Day traditionally marks the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ, which is still observed as such by the Anglican Church and the Lutheran Church.
January 1st on the Gregorian calender marks the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ which occurred eight days after Christ was born. That New Year’s Day liturgically is still observed as such in the Anglican Church and Lutheran Church. Okay, now since many speculate that Jesus was actually born in th spring and the celebration of his birth was moved to December wouldn’t make just as much sense to keep his birth in the spring, occurring eight days before the Spring Equinox, thereby making, March 20th New Year’s Day!!
So while New Year’s Day will never officially happen, in the world of Renaissance Granddad, where the best day of the winter is December 20th (after that date the days start getting longer! oh, and it’s my son Peter’s birthday!) I hereby declare March 20th New Year’s Day or at last from now on I’ll be celebrating Nowruz!! Happy Nowruz All!