Nowruz 2019

March 20, 2019 12:00 am Published by Leave your thoughts


Reckoning EPOCH Wednesday 20 March 2019 (1398 AH, 2628 ZO) at 5:58:27 pm in New York time zone

The flower buds of yellow, violet, red and white crocuses of the saffron bulbs, interspersed with the blossoming daffodils, hyacinths, tulips and the Persian violets, herald the arrival of Nowruz in Iran and the broader region. The Persian New Year, signaling rebirth, rejuvenation and reconciliation, arrives at the spring vernal equinox. Spring in Iran and the wider region is the harbinger of harmonious jubilation for the earth and the sun, with pristine streams percolating down the snowcapped mountains, the greening of the prairies and the pastures, the flowering of fruit trees and the herbs, and the luscious green seeding and germinating of staple crops. Hence, it is surmised that the Nowruz celebration must have been observed at one level or another since the inception of agriculture and the domestication of animals, as far back as 10,000 years ago. Nowruz has not only been revered on the Iranian Plateau, stretching between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf and the Indus and Tigris Rivers, but also in Mesopotamia, the Caucasus, and central and west Asia.

Nowruz is prominently praised in the mythological story of King Jamshid, credited as the first Nowruz celebrant of the Kiyanian Dynasty , & is cited in (Paradiso) Ferdowsi‘s Shahnameh.

Nowruz (جشن نوروز) aka Norooz, Navroz, NowRooz, etc. (variation in dialectic and vernacular pronunciations in Persian lingua franca) literally translates as the first day [of the New Year]. It is the most prominent seasonal celebration of the solar calendar that has persisted since the prehistoric era.

It was conceived by the agricultural peoples north of the Tropic of Cancer who revered the sun (Sol Invictus). Nowruz is preceded by Purim, the Jewish celebration of bounties, when Queen Esther married the Persian King Ahasuerus. This contrasts with lunar calendars followed by the southern and western neighbors of Iran, who used the lunar skies and traversed through the arid hot deserts at night. In addition to Iran, Nowruz as a national holiday transcending class, color, creed, ethnicity, race, religion, or national origin, is currently commemorated by well over a dozen countries consisting of nearly five hundred million inhabitants across central, south and west Asia, northwestern China, Asia Minor, and the Caucasus.

In fact, the commoners and serfs in Europe, and later the pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock in the US in today’s Massachusetts, also observed a New Year starting at the beginning of spring until the mid-18th century. This jubilee holiday was acknowledged in the Gregorian calendar as well – the month of March coincides with the first month of the Julian calendar when Europe was still under the influence of Persian Mithraism from the 1st through the 5th centuries CE. Nowruz, according to the Zoroastrian Mazdayasni, calendar is at 3758. Nowruz commences with the prelude festival of Chaharshanbe Suri on the last Tuesday night of the exiting year. At this Zoroastrian fire ritual, everyone jumps over fire, singing a Middle Persian poem that translates as

” O’ sacred Fire , take away my yellow sickness and give me in return your healthy red color! ”